Hollywood writers gathered Wednesday night to celebrate their victory after a months-long strike that brought the production of new films and television shows to a standstill. In the meantime, leaders of the actors union have announced their plans to return to the negotiation table with producers next week.
Nearly 1,000 members of the Writers Guild of America packed the Hollywood Palladium, where they showered their negotiating team’s key leaders with gratitude and several standing ovations, as reported by The Hollywood Reporter.
The strike officially ended at 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday, allowing writers to resume work. However, some may choose to honor picket lines set up by SAG-AFTRA. Earlier this week, members of the WGA negotiating committee urged writers who can to continue supporting the striking actors on their picket lines.
“This marks the end of the WGA strike and grants writers the opportunity to return to work during the ratification process. Nevertheless, it does not affect the members’ right to make a final decision on contract approval,” stated the Writers Guild of America negotiating committee in a message to union members on Tuesday. “We will hold meetings with current members this week before the ratification vote begins.”
The ratification vote, involving approximately 11,500 WGA members, is scheduled to take place from October 2 to 9.
Meanwhile, the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) has generated renewed hope for an end to its strike. They have announced that negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the studios, will recommence next week.
“SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP will engage in bargaining on Monday, October 2. Several executives from AMPTP member companies will be in attendance. We will provide you with substantive updates as negotiations progress,” the union shared on X (formerly Twitter) on Wednesday evening.
The WGA strike began on May 2, with actors joining the strike in mid-July over many shared concerns, including residual formulas for streamed content and protections against the use of artificial intelligence.
Together, these labor actions brought the entertainment industry to a halt, with actors and writers picketing daily in front of major Hollywood studios.
While negotiators for the WGA and the AMPTP worked diligently in recent days to reach their tentative deal, SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP have not conducted official talks since the start of the strike in July.
SAG-AFTRA represents approximately 160,000 actors. Their demands include wage increases across the board, measures to protect actors’ images from being manipulated by artificial intelligence, improved compensation for successful streaming programs, and enhancements in health and retirement benefits.
The proposed three-year contract for the WGA was announced on Sunday night following five consecutive days of negotiation sessions, at least some of which were attended by the so-called “Gang of Four” group consisting of top studio executives such as Ted Sarandos from Netflix, Bob Iger from Disney, Donna Langley from Universal, and David Zaslav from Warner Bros/Discovery.
With the endorsement of the boards of the WGA’s East Coast and West Coast branches on Tuesday, the union has also released a detailed overview of the agreement. It includes gradual increases in minimum salaries: a 5% jump upon ratification, followed by 4% in May 2024 and 3.5% in May 2025. The proposal also includes improvements in health and pension contributions.
This contract proposal also introduces restrictions on the use of artificial intelligence by studios. AI will be prohibited from writing or rewriting literary material and AI-generated content will not be considered as source material, ensuring that it does not undermine a writer’s credit.
Moreover, the proposal features a new residual formula for streaming programs, providing additional pay for programs that achieve significant viewership. According to the guild’s explanation, shows or films that are viewed by 20% or more of the domestic subscribers of the streaming service within the first 90 days of release or in any subsequent exhibition year will receive a bonus of 50% of the fixed domestic and foreign residual.
Other enhancements in the proposed contract include salary increases for TV series writers and employment guarantees for specific numbers of writers based on the number of episodes produced.
A full summary of the contract proposal, compiled by the WGA, is available at wgacontract2023.org/the-campaign/summary-of-the-2023-wga-mba.
The three major networks’ flagship late-night talk shows, including “The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon” on NBC, “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert” on CBS, and “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” on ABC, are expected to be among the first new entertainment programs to return to the airwaves, with production resuming as early as next week.
Bill Maher, who hosts the weekly HBO program “Real Time,” which is taped at CBS Television City in the Fairfax District, also announced his return on X, saying, “My writers and Real Time are back! See you Friday Night!”
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