Tentative Deal Reached To End Hollywood Writers Strike. No Deal Yet For Actors
Union leaders and Hollywood studios reached a tentative agreement Sunday to end a historic screenwriters strike after nearly five months, though no deal is yet in the works for striking actors.
A deal in the negotiations between the WGA and studios CEOs to end the nearly five-month long writers’ strike looks within sight. During the meeting Saturday at the AMPTP Sherman Oaks office, the parties appear to have untangled their stalemate over AI and writing room staffing levels. With Netflix’s Ted Sarandos, Universal’s Donna Langley, Disney’s Bob Iger and Warner Bros Discovery’s David Zaslav participating from afar, attorneys are said to be deep-in working on final language for a three-year deal.
“The WGA and AMPTP met for bargaining on Friday and will meet again on Saturday,” the guild confirmed in a note sent out to members at 9:41 p.m. Friday. “Thank you for the wonderful show of support on the picket lines today! It means so much to us as we continue to work toward a deal that writers deserve.”
The Writers Guildl of mericaA is heading back to the bargaining table with the CEOs of Netflix, Disney, Universal and Warner Bros Discovery on Friday. “The WGA and AMPTP met for bargaining today and will meet again tomorrow,” said the guild in a message to members after a long session Thursday night. Executives Ted Sarandos, Bob Iger, Donna Langley and David Zaslav are all anticipated to be in attendance Friday, along with AMPTP President Carol Lombardini and a praetorian guard of lawyers. On the other side, WGA chief negotiator Ellen Stutzman, along with David Goodman and Chris Keyser, will also be in the room at the AMPTP’s Sherman Oaks offices.
The Writers Guild and studios and streamers are set to meet again Thursday for further talks on a new contract for scribes. After a long, CEO-attended session Wednesday that one insider described as “very encouraging,” the WGA and the AMPTP will return to the latter’s Sherman Oaks offices on Sept. 21, we’re told.
The WGA sent out a note Monday: “The WGA and AMPTP now have a confirmed schedule to bargain this week, starting on Wednesday. You might not hear from us in the coming days while we are negotiating, but know that our focus is getting a fair deal for writers as soon as possible. We’ll reach out again when there is something of significance to report. In the meantime, please continue to demonstrate your commitment and unity by coming out to the picket lines – for yourselves and fellow writers, SAG-AFTRA, other unions’ members, and all those in our community who are impacted by the strikes,” the guild noted.
Picket signs have lined the gates of Hollywood’s studios for nearly five months, as the industry’s writers and actors rally for AI protections, better wages and a cut of streaming profits. The problem is streaming isn’t yet profitable for many studios. While many of Hollywood’s biggest studios are publicly traded and must share quarterly financial reports, there are no rules about providing streaming-viewership data. This lack of transparency has made recent contract negotiations between studios and the industry’s writers and actors especially contentious.
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the industry’s studios, streaming services and production companies in union negotiations, said in a statement Thursday that it had reached out to the Writers Guild of America on Wednesday and the two sides agreed to resume negotiations next week.
At An Industry Tipping Point, The Art Of Negotiating Will Be Key
The Hollywood strike negotiations and the carriage dispute issues currently roiling the media industry are clearly intertwined. How the studios and networks negotiate through both will determine the future of news and entertainment.
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers said Friday night that the studios remain aligned, and pushed the Writers Guild of America to respond to its latest offer. The AMPTP was responding to the WGA’s call earlier in the day for one or more of the member companies to break away from the alliance and negotiate a separate deal. The WGA suggested that some of the legacy studios may be willing to accommodate the writers’ demands.
IAC mogul Barry Diller thinks that the Hollywood studios need to “reorient” their businesses, and fast, or else face potential “catastrophic” consequences. The former studio executive, speaking to journalist Kara Swisher for her podcast, also expressed pessimism about the ongoing SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes, and suggested that the legacy Hollywood studios should split with Netflix and their tech counterparts at the AMPTP.
Negotiations between the Writers Guild of America and the major studios remained in limbo on Monday, after a week of public sparring failed to result in forward movement. The sides have not formally met since Aug. 18, when the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers rejected the WGA’s Aug. 15 counter offer. Four CEOs did meet with a handful of WGA leaders on Aug. 22 to urge them to accept the studios’ counter, which was made on Aug. 11.
As talks with the Writers Guild of America stall, the studio trade association has retained D.C.-based firm The Levinson Group to pursue a fresh messaging strategy.
The window to produce shortened seasons of popular scripted shows for midseason dwindles as AMPTP and WGA talks turn contentious.
In a memo to members released to the media late Tuesday night, the Writers Guild of America accused Hollywood studios of not negotiating in good faith, and urged members to continue striking after studios released the details of their latest offer to the public.
WGA West released a report raising concerns about the streaming services and studios consolidating power and undercutting writers as its members remain on strike.
“We’re ready and waiting for that to happen for us,” NY local chapter president Ezra Knight told The Wrap.
One The Wrap source says there’s “cautious optimism” that a strike-ending deal may be near.
The Writers Guild of America responded Tuesday to the latest proposal from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, but any hopes for an easy resolution of the 106-day strike were quickly dispelled. The WGA did bend slightly on a few items, according to sources familiar with the talks. But the union negotiators did not offer the significant concessions that the studio side was looking for in response to its own offer.
Yesterday’s sit-down at the Sherman Oaks office of the Carol Lombardini-led organization concluded with “mixed results,” according to a well-placed Deadline source. No details have yet to emerge as to whether the parties will meet for further talks or if more proposals will be offered.
In its most recent proposal to the Writers Guild of America, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers offered some concession on the top issues leading to a strike, including so-called artificial intelligence, staffing, and data on streaming service viewership.
After their first day of bargaining since the Writers Guild went on strike May 2, the AMPTP and the WGA have recessed their negotiations until next week after the companies made a counterproposal to guild’s proposals. The WGA told its members Friday evening: “Your Negotiating Committee received a counterproposal from the AMPTP today. We will evaluate their offer and, after deliberation, go back to them with the WGA’s response next week.”
The WGA informed members Thursday that the AMPTP requested the meeting in response to the guild’s proposals that were outlined Aug. 4 in the so-called talks about talking.
Meeting for the first time in more than three months, the Writers Guild and the AMPTP on Friday failed to reach an agreement to resume contract negotiations. Their inability to agree on terms for returning to the bargaining table comes after their much anticipated meeting to discuss a possible resumption of talks. “As of now, there is no agreement on these items, because the AMPTP said they needed to consult with their member studios before moving forward,” the union said in a statement late Friday.
On Tuesday night, the Writers Guild of America sent an email to members saying that the head of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents major studios, streaming services and production companies in negotiations, requested a meeting on Friday to discuss the resumption of contract talks.
So far, neither studio executives nor actors and writers have shown formal interest in bringing Newsom to the negotiating table, said Anthony York, Newsom’s senior adviser for communications. But York said both Newsom and senior members of his administration have been in touch with all sides as the two strikes stretch deeper into the summer blockbuster season.
In the fall, TV viewers across the U.S. will see fewer new scripted shows like ABC’s Abbott Elementary, a trend that could continue well into next year if the walkouts continue.
The last big strikes reshaped the movie business and fueled the rise of reality TV. The latest walkout likely will help turn established actors into TikTok stars — and vice versa.
For a week, actors including household names like Tina Fey, Kevin Bacon and wife Kyra Sedgwick, Rosario Dawson, David Duchovny, Sarah Silverman (pictured) and other stars have joined working class performers and writers on picket lines outside studios and corporate offices of streaming giants Amazon, MAX and Netflix. There’s no indication when negotiations with studios and streaming companies, which are represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, will resume. The group has said they’ve offered both writers and actors substantial pay increases and have tried to meet other demands.
SAG-AFTRA’s national board voted unanimously today to launch the guild’s first strike against the film and television industry since 1980. The strike is set to begin tonight one minute past midnight, with picketing at all the major studios.
Top Hollywood players are working on a plan to call in federal mediators to help avert a SAG-AFTRA strike, with just a day to go before the contract deadline. A group of CEOs and senior executives, including Disney TV chief Dana Walden and film chief Alan Bergman, Warner Bros. Discovery’s David Zaslav and Netflix’s Ted Sarandos, gathered by conference call Monday evening to discuss the urgent situation with SAG-AFTRA poised to go on strike as soon as Thursday.
Unionized Hollywood actors on the verge of a strike have agreed to allow a last-minute intervention from federal mediators but say they doubt a deal will be reached by a negotiation deadline late Wednesday. Above: Actors and comedians Tina Fey, center, and Fred Armisen, right, join striking members of the Writers Guild of America on the picket line during a rally on May 9.
With just days to go, SAG-AFTRA is stepping up its efforts to prepare for going on strike even as contract negotiations with Hollywood’s major studios intensify. On Thursday, SAG-AFTRA distributed a survey to its 160,000 members and alerted them that the union would be calling for volunteers to help make signs, work phone banks, distribute T-shirts and generally support a mobilization of pickets on the streets of Los Angeles, New York and selected other locations. The email message includes a survey of members’ availability to picket outside studio gates, New York offices and other key locations. Thursday’s communication was the second part of the initial survey questions sent to members on Wednesday.
The Writer Guild of America said Wednesday that “we stand in solidarity with SAG-AFTRA as they bargain for a contract that truly works for all their members.” It’s the first comment the WGA has made on the SAG-AFTRA talks since the actors’ union last week extended its contract until July 12 to allow negotiations for a new film and TV contract to continue.
SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers agreed Friday to extend their current film and TV contract until July 12 to allow bargaining on a new deal to continue, both sides said this evening. The current contract had been set to expire tonight at midnight PT, after which it would have likely meant a second major Hollywood guild would be on strike against the studios. “The agreements, which were set Friday at 11:59 p.m. PT, will now expire on July 12, at 11:59 p.m. PT,” SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP said in a joint statement.
The Directors Guild of America’s national board of directors has unanimously approved the tentative agreement reached by the guild’s negotiating committee late Saturday, a deal that aims to set parameters around the use of artificial intelligence and boost streaming residual rates. With the board’s approval, the contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers will be sent to a ratification vote by DGA membership. The guild expects to send materials to its members this week.
The membership of SAG-AFTRA has voted overwhelmingly to approve a strike authorization, maximizing the guild’s leverage ahead of negotiations that begin on Wednesday. The guild announced Monday night that 97.91% of the voting members supported the authorization. Turnout was 47.69%. The vote comes as the Writers Guild of America strike enters its sixth week.