The Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers have reportedly reached a tentative four-year deal for a new contract.
Puck co-founder and reporter Matt Belloni first reported news of the tentative deal Saturday. The agreement represents a departure from standard practice, adding one more year to the WGA’s usual three-year contract. Additionally, it includes health plan and pension increases, bumps in streaming pay and protections that will police licensing for AI training.
The new contract is still subject to ratification following a vote by union members. The WGA and AMPTP did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
This tentative deal is a promising signal that the Writers Guild could avoid a strike after 2023’s historic work stoppage that lasted 148 days.
Separately, the Writers Guild of America West’s staff union has been on strike since mid-February.
The union’s current contract is set to expire May 1. WGA is the first of the Hollywood unions to reach a deal. SAG-AFTRA and the Directors Guild of America still need to reach an agreement with the studios.
The actors’ union began negotiations with the studios in February and extended those talks in March, but paused in order for the AMPTP to finish negotiations with the writers’ union. SAG-AFTRA and DGA’s contracts each expire June 30.
After seven weeks on strike, members of the Writers Guild Staff Union are losing their healthcare.
The staff typically has access to the same plan offered to the Writers Guild members through the Producer-Writers Guild of America Health Plan. Employees represented by the staff union earn coverage on a month-to-month basis if they worked 31 hours per week the previous month. But since the group — which includes over 100 workers across legal, communications and residuals departments — has been on strike, they are no longer eligible.
The staff union wrote on social media that it learned about the coverage loss through an online portal “just hours before this goes into effect.”
“This puts children, spouses and their own employees into a further state of crisis. We are in week seven of our strike. This is just the latest attempt by WGAW to bust our union and break our strike,” the union wrote in the Instagram post.
WGA West confirmed employees who receive health coverage on a month-to-month basis are no longer eligible for it as of April 1. The guild said in a statement that striking employees can elect COBRA continuation coverage if they want to be covered in April and that they “cannot make contributions on behalf of staff employees who did not work in March and have no earnings.”
The work stoppage was first called on Feb. 17, after the staff union alleged that management had no intention to reach an agreement on the pending contract. Negotiations between the WGA and its staff union started last September.
Last week, the staffers sent a complete collective bargaining agreement to the union’s management, which they said was “designed to bring this strike to a resolution.” Key sticking points in the negotiations include seniority-based layoffs and promotions, as well as the right to strike mid-term in the contract.
WGA wrote in a statement that it has “negotiated a contract with the staff union that offers generous economic improvements and workplace protections that are among the best for any union staff in Los Angeles.”
It has been nearly three years since Hollywood writers went on a historic strike that lasted 148 days and ushered in an extraordinary period of labor unrest that virtually shut down the film and TV business.
Now, writers are poised to commence another round of bargaining with the major studios on a new three-year film and TV contract. Few observers think the union is girding for another showdown, especially at a time when many of its members are struggling to find work amid media consolidation and belt-tightening.
But in advance of negotiations that begin on Monday , union leaders are eager to dispel any perception that they might have scaled back their demands.
“Our members have shown many times that they’re willing to fight for what we need as a collective group,” WGA West President Michele Mulroney said in an interview. “And there’s no exception here.”
With its current contract expiring on May 1, the WGA hopes to improve its members’ healthcare plans, increase streaming residuals and expand AI protections.
Michele Mulroney speaks as the Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) and Writers Guild of America (WGA) join GLAAD in releasing the 11TH Annual GLAAD Studio Responsibility Index at The Village at Ed Gould Plaza Los Angeles LGBT Center in Los Angeles, California, on September 14, 2023.
(Michael Tran/AFP via Getty Images)
Ellen Stutzman, the union’s executive director, said despite popular belief, the studios have weathered the transition from cable television to streaming “very well,” citing their efforts to maximize revenue with streaming bundling, rising subscription fees and advertising revenue.
“Writers are watching as Netflix and Paramount are fighting it out to acquire Warner Bros… Paramount is spending $81 billion,” said Stutzman. “There’s money for a fair deal for writers.”
The union leaders agree that this year’s negotiations are all focused on the sustainability of a writer’s career.
A spokesperson from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the major studios in negotiations, said in a statement that they look forward “to engaging in a constructive and collaborative bargaining process with the WGA. Through continued good-faith dialogue, we are confident we can reach balanced solutions that support talented writers while sustaining the long-term success and stability of our industry and its workforce.”
A top priority for the WGA is to increase the caps that companies contribute to the union’s healthcare plan. Union officials say the current cap has remain unchanged for two decades as healthcare contributions have steadily declined due to fewer writers working.
“AI is using [studios’] IP, which is stuff that we wrote to license these models,” said John August, the co-host of the “Scriptnotes” podcast and WGA’s negotiating committee co-chair. “With the Sora deal, it seems clear that the companies intend to monetize this IP for use with AI.”
August says the union will be skeptical toward arguments that it’s still too early to seek more safeguards around such a nascent industry, citing the union’s past history with the rise of DVDs and the internet and how profoundly those technologies changed the compensation for writers.
“If you’re taking the work that we created to generate AI outputs, we are owed money. They’re using our work to do something down the road,” added August.
WGA’s negotiating committee also is looking to boost streaming residuals, expand the minimum number of people allowed in a writers’ room and add protections for scribes working on pilots.
“We very much hope that lessons were learned in 2023 and that the AMPTP will come to the table ready to take our proposal seriously and to make a fair deal, and to do that quickly,” Mulroney said. “It provides stability for the companies and for our membership. It’s better for everybody.”
WGA is entering contract negotiations nearly a month after the actors’ union, SAG-AFTRA, began its bargaining sessions. Last week, the AMPTP said it was extending negotiations another seven days.
