Washington DC [US], September 25, 2023: Nearly five months after Hollywood screenwriters went on strike, a tentative agreement has been reached to end the standoff that has devastated the television and film industries.
Swati Bhat
According to Deadline, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) inked a tentative agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), a labor group representing studios and streaming services, on Sunday.
The writers' strike began on May 2 of this year, when 11,500 WGA members went on strike when their contract ended. Among the concerns they were protesting were increasing pay, the usage of AI in script composition, and the size of reduced writing staff connected to streaming show performance. "The WGA and the AMPTPT have reached a tentative agreement," the two unions declared in a joint statement late Sunday night.
“We have reached a tentative agreement on a new 2023 MBA, which is to say an agreement in principle on all deal points, subject to drafting final contract language,” the WGA told its members in a release, which the US-based media outlet Deadline said came after five days of long negotiations.
The agreement was reached after five days of negotiating with union officials and four top media CEOs, which began on September 20 and lasted over the weekend. The WGA's tentative deal has not been made public, but the organisation will announce it ahead of membership ratification votes. The WGA negotiating committee will vote on "whether to recommend the agreement and send it on to the WGAW Board and WGAE Council for approval" in votes tentatively slated for Tuesday, the guild stated on Sunday, according to Deadline.
Meanwhile, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), a labor union that has been on strike against the film and television industries since July of this year, has congratulated the WGA for "getting over the biggest hurdles with AMPTP." "After 146 days of incredible strength, resiliency, and solidarity on the picket lines, SAG-AFTRA congratulates the WGA on reaching a tentative agreement with the AMPTP." While we await the WGA and AMPTP's tentative agreement, we are dedicated to attaining the required terms for our members," Variety quoted a statement as saying.