Writers’ Strike: After 146 days, WGA and studios reach a settlement

After almost 5 months of strike, the Writers Guild of America, the US screenwriters union, and the Hollywood studios came to an agreement. The agreement on a new three-year contract for film and television screenwriters must be ratified by a majority of the members of the WGAbut this agreement ended the strike that began on May 2nd.

Announcing the happy news to its members, the WGA wrote “The agreement was made possible because of the unity of the members and the extraordinary support of other entertainment unions. We can proudly say that this agreement is exceptional and it provides significant development for authors and screenwriters in all sectors. All that’s left for our staff is to make sure everything is placed appropriately. And while we can’t wait to share with you the details of what we’ve achieved, we can’t do so until we’ve covered the final i’s.”

As we can read from the note, the WGA is still talking about a “provisional” agreement because the final draft of the document has not yet been issued, which will then have to be approved by the union’s management and the majority of the 11,000 members through online voting. But after today’s signing, everything will be a simple formality.

The agreement was reached between the WGA and the Hollywood studio after five days of negotiations at the offices of the AMPTP Of Sherman Oaks. After months of fighting, in which every attempt at negotiation has been a failure, the situation changed on Wednesday when a new discussion table was opened between the two parties that led to today’s agreement. At the express request of the governor of California Gavin Newsomwith the Carol LombardiniAMPTP president, too Ted Sarandos Of Netflix, Bob Iger Of Disney, David Zaslav Of Discovery of Warner Bros And Donna Langley Of General they sat at the discussion table.

On Saturday, AMPTP made its “latest and greatest” offer, which was approved today by WGA representatives. The demands that led to the strike, which began in May, were accepted. In the new agreement, the screenwriters got an increase in the minimum wage, guarantees on the writing stage of the subjects and a higher percentage on the residuals for the works intended for streaming. The issue that is the most controversial and difficult to say about the new contract is aboutuse of artificial intelligence.

Thus ended one of the longest strikes in the history of Hollywood, which paralyzed the entertainment industry, leading to losses of over 5 billion dollars. However, the actors’ union remains on strike SAG-AFTRAwhere the AMPTP will need to reopen negotiations after last July’s impasse. “We have no choice. We are the victims here. We are victims of a mighty creature” he declared then Fran Drescherpresident of SAG-AFTRA.

Source: Various