WGA members vote to ratify new contract with Hollywood studios
Members of the Writers Guild of America overwhelmingly voted to ratify their new contract with Hollywood studios, bringing an official end to five-month strike that all but brought the entertainment industry to a grinding halt.
The union announced the news on Monday after members had a week to vote on the labor contract that the two sides agreed upon back on Sept. 24. members voted 99% in favor of the deal. More than 8,500 votes were cast with just 90 of those being "no" votes.
Negotiators for WGA and AMPTP, the American Motion Picture and Television Producers, met for five consecutive days after not meeting at the bargaining table for months. The strike officially began back on May 2 and nearly reached 150 days by the time that the agreement was reached.
Under the new deal, which lasts until May 1, 2026, members will see an increase in minimum salaries, which will jump by 5% upon ratification, an additional 4% in May 2024 and another 3.5% in May 2025. There will be employment guarantees for a set number of writers on series, which will be based on the number of episodes being produced.
Additionally, they will see increases in contributions to health and pension benefits.
The contract also includes a number of restrictions on how studios use artificial intelligence, basically barring them from using the technology to write or rewrite literary material. AI-generated content will also be restricted from being considered as source material and won't be able to "undermine a writer's credit," the contract says.
There is also a new residual formula to be used for streaming programs, which will boost the pay for successful programs for writers. The guild says that shows or films "that are viewed by 20% or more of the service's domestic subscribers in the first 90 days of release, or in the first 90 days in any subsequent exhibition year, get a bonus equal to 50% of the fixed domestic and foreign residual, with views calculated as hours streamed domestically of the season or film divided by runtime."
After the deal was agreed upon, board members from WGA East and West endorsed the contract, which allowed the union to officially bring the months-long strike to an end on Sept. 27, allowing writers to return to work while the ratification process continued.
"As our negotiations come to an end, we won't forget our SAG-AFTRA siblings who have supported writers every step of the way," a message to members said on Monday. "We call upon the AMPTP to negotiate a deal that addresses the needs of performers and, until they do, we ask WGA members who can continue to show up on their picket lines in solidarity."
Days after the new WGA deal was reached, the negotiating committee for the Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, announced that they would also be returning to the table with studios. After three days of negotiation, the two sides announced that they would break over the weekend and continue talks on Monday.
Actors began their own strike in mid-July.
