Hispanic Screenwriter Files 3rd Amended Complaint Against CBS and the Writers Guild for Latino 1/2 Pay Program

June 23, 2001 -- On Wednesday, June 20, 2001, a Hispanic Screenwriter, Migdia Chinea-Varela, filed a Third Amended Complaint for National Origin Discrimination/Harassment and Retaliation against CBS and the Writers Guild, in her lawsuit Chinea-Varela v. CBS, Inc.; Writers Guild of America, west; et al., Case No. CV98-10064-JSL(AJWx), previously filed on December 15, 1998, and dismissed by United States District Judge J. Spencer Letts' May 25, 1999 Order, on the Defendants' Pretrial Motions to Dismiss, prior to being reinstated on February 16, 2001, by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

After the Court of Appeals had reinstated the case against CBS and the Writers Guild as to Discrimination under both Federal Title VII law and State Fair Employment and Housing Act ("FEHA") law, as to Federal Title VII Retaliation claims against CBS and the Writers Guild, and as to FEHA Retaliation claims against all defendants, including the individuals Jeff Sagansky and Charles D. Segars of CBS and Frank Pierson and Brian Walton of the Writers Guild, the U.S. District Court issued an Order on May 21, 2001, and entered on May 23, 2001, granting Ms. Chinea-Varela 30-days to file a Third Amended Complaint.

The Plaintiff, Migdia Chinea-Varela, who was the founder of the Writers Guild Latino Writers Committee, had sued CBS and the Writers Guild for $138.6 Million Dollars under Title VII of the Federal Civil Rights Act and under the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, alleging the Defendants were forcing Hispanic screenwriters into "trainee" positions which paid only one-half of the Writers' Minimum Basic Agreement or MBA, by filing a lawsuit on December 15, 1998, in the United States District Court, as Case No. CV 98-10064 JSL.  The MBA is the writers' minimum wage that CBS and the other studios had negotiated with the Writers Guild.  Chinea-Varela had alleged that despite the fact that she had fifteen years of writing experience and credits on such well known television programs as "Facts of Life," "Incredible Hulk" and "What's Happening Now," CBS relegated her and other professional Hispanic screenwriters to "trainee" positions that paid only half of the writers' Minimum Basic Agreement.    According to the lawsuit, after complaining about and protesting the "half-pay" program as being discriminatory, Chinea-Varela was blacklisted by the Hollywood establishment, and did not receive even a single "pitch meeting," the equivalent of an interview for writers.  The lawsuit, which has been variously described by a Civil Rights Organization, the Campaign for a Colorblind America Legal Defense and Educational Foundation (www.equalrights.com), and the media as a Landmark and Groundbreaking case.