Hollywood studios, WGA reach tentative deal that could end writers strike

Negotiators for Hollywood studios and the Writers Guild of America reached a breakthrough agreement after five straight days of negotiations — a tentative deal to end a strike that has halted most TV and film scriptwriting in the country.

The terms of the agreement were not immediately shared by the WGA, which said in a statement Sunday night that the deal was “exceptional,” adding that it included “meaningful gains and protections for writers in every sector of the membership.”

The union said it was immediately suspending picketing, though its more than 11,000 members were warned not to return to work until the deal is put into the language of a contract, then approved by WGA leaders and general membership in coming days. “We are still on strike until then,” the statement said.

But the deal still marks the most hopeful sign of progress since May, when the WGA and a consortium of major studios and streaming services failed to renew their old contract. The sides were divided over issues such as pay for writers and the use of artificial intelligence to create scripts. The WGA strike has lasted nearly 150 days, making it one of Hollywood’s longest labor-strike disputes.

“I am so proud of the hard work and dedication, not only at the negotiating committee, but of all of the members of the WGA who showed incredible unity in fighting for a fair deal,” said WGA member Gloria Calderón Kellett, co-creator of “One Day at a Time.”

Even if writers return to work in the coming days, that won’t end Hollywood’s labor crisis by itself. After inking a new contract with the writers, the studios will have to restart the negotiation process with another union that represents tens of thousands of TV and film actors who went on strike themselves over the summer.

“Hopefully, a precedent has been established, the actors can get a fair deal, as well, and we can all get back to work very soon,” said WGA member Michael Jamin (“King of the Hill,” “Just Shoot Me”), whose strike-commentary updates have 160,000 followers on Instagram.

What’s ahead
Whatever agreement the two sides have struck has not been put into the language of a final contract, according to Sunday’s statement. “Though we are eager to share the details of what has been achieved with you, we cannot do that until the last ‘i’ is dotted,” it read. “To do so would complicate our ability to finish the job.”

Once the contract has been completed, the WGA’s negotiating committee will need to approve it, followed by the board of directors for the union’s eastern and western branches — votes tentatively scheduled to take place by Tuesday.

If the contract is approved by leadership, the WGA would make the contract language public and hold meetings about it for the union’s approximately 11,500 members. Those members would hold a ratification vote, and if a majority of them approved the deal, the union would presumably send them back to work.

WGA members have overwhelmingly voted in favor of new contracts in recent negotiating cycles, which take place every three years. More than 97 percent of WGA voters ratified the 2020 contract, which expired in May and precipitated the current strike, and the 2017 contract before it.

The contract that ended the WGA’s last strike in 2008 was only slightly less popular, with 93.6 percent of more than 4,000 voting members approving its ratification.

Union leaders don’t have to wait for the ratification vote to end the strike, necessarily. In 2008, WGA board members voted to let writers return to work two weeks before the new contract was ratified. In Sunday’s statement, WGA negotiators said union leaders could decide to do the same thing this time: “This would allow writers to return to work during the ratification vote, but would not affect the membership’s right to make a final determination on contract approval.”

Settling the WGA strike means the writers can resume writing scripts, which should help ease the growing backlog of delayed TV and film projects that have piled up since May. Many reality shows and other projects that don’t rely on striking actors may be able to resume production immediately.

But the studios won’t be able to film the bulk of their scripted projects, including franchise movies and sitcoms, until they settle a dispute with a much larger union: the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, which ordered tens of thousands of TV and film performers to withhold their work in July.

The actors struck for many of the same reasons as the writers — they want better pay and benefits, higher residual payments and transparency from streaming projects and protections against being replaced by artificial intelligence. But SAG-AFTRA’s specific demands are different from the WGA’s, and it has different leaders and negotiators.

That’s why the crisis in Hollywood could linger for weeks or months. It took the studios nearly two months to reach a tentative deal with the WGA after the two sides resumed negotiations in early August. The renewed talks began haltingly, with little progress and mutual finger-pointing, before concluding in an extended stretch of closed-door meetings this past week that included chief executives from Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, NBCUniversal and Netflix — a sign of how badly the studios want the writers back on the job.

In contrast, the studios haven’t yet requested a meeting with SAG-AFTRA negotiators, the actors union’s executive director and chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland said before the WGA deal was announced, though the union said it’s ready to talk.

Once SAG-AFTRA does meet with studios and hammers out a tentative contract, the process is very similar to the WGA’s: The board of directors must approve the deal first, and then the actors must vote to ratify it, and then they’ll return to their jobs.

