The Guild sends word today that it reached an agreement with Perry after five months of negotiations, during which a handful of veteran scribes for his series Meet the Browns and House of Payne were terminated for attempting to unionize the staff. The catch? Those writers will not be coming back, according to a WGA release issued late this morning.

But, they added, the mogul "thanked them for their services and wished them well in their future endeavors." Surely that's of little comfort to the reeling Tyler Perry Four, who now confront the reality they may never again have the enviable opportunity to mass-produce Madea jokes for a Perry-starved populace. We hope the NAACP negotiators can sleep at night.

Instead, we hear the WGA is helping to organize a strike action on behalf of four of Perry's former writers at Payne, who have alleged they were fired Tuesday after attempting to unionize the show's staff since April to acquire health and pension benefits. Not very Christlike, Tyler!

The writers said Perry warned them weeks ago to "be careful about pushing the WGA deal or you could be replaced.” Now a grievance is on file with the National Labor Relations Board, and the Tyler Perry Four are lobbying invited guests to either join them Saturday on the picket line or skip the fête altogether. This is a civil rights issue, after all, according to a release dispatched this afternoon by the WGA:

“It’s very disheartening considering that this is a studio run by African Americans. What Tyler Perry is essentially saying to us is that ‘you’re black and there’s not a lot of opportunities for you so you’ll take what I give you’ – whether it’s fair or not.”

“I feel like I was slapped in the face, like we were used” said writer and WGAW member Teri Brown-Jackson. “We were good enough to create over a hundred episodes, but now when it comes to reaping the benefits of the show being syndicated and having other spin-offs from it, he decides to let us go unless we accept a horrible offer.” [...]

The show’s head writer, Kellie Griffin, added, “A lot of people who fought for civil rights and social justice never really saw what eventually came out of their work. While I’d like to see something positive come out of this for us, if this fight helps future black writers get what they deserve, that’s a good thing.”

It's an age-old story, but on one hand we're shocked: All this time we thought Perry was cranking out Madea scripts 10 at a time while directing House of Payne with the free side of his brain. On the other, we really should have known that one man couldn't be responsible for so many enduring — and enduringly lucrative — masterpieces on his own, leading us to wonder if he'll have what it takes to assemble Madea's vocal, violent response in time for both his guests and his picketers by Saturday. Surely a few drones in that shiny new quip mill of his are working unpaid overtime tonight. Developing...