Writers' strike is officially over — here's a look at the new WGA contract
It's official — the Writers Guild of America strike will end Wednesday, Sept. 27, at 12:01 a.m. PT.
The announcement comes following Sunday's news that the WGA and the AMPTP, which represents Hollywood's studios and streamers, had reached a tentative agreement for a new three-year contract for film and television writers.
Writers have been on strike since May 2, making the 148-day strike the second-longest in the guild's history (after the 1988 strike, which lasted 153 days).
The WGA West Board and the WGA East Council both unanimously voted to recommend the newly-negotiated 2023 Minimum Basic Agreement. WGA members will vote to ratify the new contract next week, between Oct. 2 through Oct. 9.
The end of the strike means that writers will be allowed to return to work starting tomorrow.
David Livingston/Getty WGA members on the picket line
The WGA posted a link to the 96-page memorandum of agreement on its website, and also provided a brief summary of the most important details of the deal.
Artificial intelligence was one of the most heavily-scrutinized issues on the bargaining table, and the WGA explains how the new contract protects writers from A.I. Under the new contract, A.I. cannot "be used to undermine a writer's credit or separated rights." Additionally, companies must inform writers if material has been generated by A.I., and if a company uses a writer's material to train A.I. models, the WGA is allowed to deem that training as unlawful. Writers also cannot be forced by their employers to use A.I.
Another important issue on the table was streaming residuals, which had previously been notoriously difficult to come by for writers. Streaming services now must share statistics about streaming data with the WGA, and writers will be compensated with significant residual bonuses for shows and movies that are viewed by 20 percent of a streaming service's subscribers within 90 days.
Additionally, the new contract increases minimum pay rates, improves provisions for health care, expands residual payments for streaming, and ensures longer minimum periods of work for writers in development rooms and post-greenlight rooms. The WGA had also hoped to expand the minimum number of writers in a writers' room to six plus one more for every two episodes, but conceded to three writer-producers, plus an an additional two to three writers if the season has seven or more episodes.
Meanwhile, the SAG-AFTRA strike, which began in July, will continue until the union reaches a deal with the AMPTP. Deadline reported that the two parties could meet for negotiations by the end of next week, but a SAG-AFTRA spokesperson also told the outlet that "We have no confirmed dates scheduled and there will not be meetings with the AMPTP this week," and that "When we do have dates confirmed, we will inform our members. No one should rely on speculation."
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