WGA members vote 'yes' to end strike

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 12 (UPI) -- Writers Guild of America members voted Tuesday to end the strike that has crippled much of the U.S. entertainment industry for more than three months.

The WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers reached a tentative deal last weekend, but it still must be ratified by the guild's membership.

The members voted Tuesday on whether they wanted to end the strike immediately or wait to do so until after the contract was ratified.

A message posted on the WGA Web site Tuesday evening said 3,775 writers turned out in Los Angeles and New York to cast ballots or fax in proxies, with 92.5 percent voting in favor of ending the strike that began Nov. 5.

"The strike is over. Our membership has voted, and writers can go back to work," Patric M. Verrone, president of the WGA West said in a statement. "This was not a strike we wanted, but one we had to conduct in order to win jurisdiction and establish appropriate residuals for writing in new media and on the Internet. Those advances now give us a foothold in the digital age."