It’s been 145 days since the Writer’s Guild of America decided to picket the fences of the AMPTP and halt all production, and while it looked like the big studios weren’t going to budge, it seems that the groups have come to a tentative agreement that should put the strike to an end.
As announced by WGA spokesperson Adam Conover, a tentative deal has been agreed upon. He posts:
We did it. We have a tentative deal.
Over the coming days, we'll discuss and vote on it, together, as a democratic union. But today, I want to thank every single WGA member, and every fellow worker who stood with us in solidarity. You made this possible. Thank you. #WGAStrong pic.twitter.com/KfzVKoPMPz
— Adam Conover (@adamconover) September 25, 2023
“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.”
To clarify, an official deal hasn’t been reached yet, but something is close, and we should expect everything to be finalized in a few weeks.
The strike mostly had something to do with writers not receiving proper residuals for their work on streaming platforms, which have become the dominant form of entertainment for everyone globally. Though writers used to get residuals whenever things they worked on aired on a station somewhere, the same kind of profits didn’t go to them with the new streaming model, and multiple writers had found themselves not even being able to cover their healthcare, even if their series was a massive success.
There is also the issue with the rise of AI and people trying to use it to remove the writer from the production process.
The same issues can also be said for the actors, which is why SAG AFTRA also went on strike. With the deal closing in with the WGA, everyone is hoping something could be agreed upon with the Screen Actors Guild soon, so everyone could get back to work.
As of now, the WGA is still set to deliberate the final agreement with the AMPTP.
