On May 2, 2023, the entertainment industry hit a major bump in the road. The Writers Guild — which has more than 11,000 members — announced that its writers were officially on strike. That meant that nearly every major Hollywood production was forced to a halt as the writers hit the picket lines. Among the Guild’s major issues were the use of artificial intelligence, better wages, and better residuals from streaming services like Disney+.
Two months after Hollywood writers went on strike, Hollywood’s actors joined them. Since then, it has been a battle between the guilds and the AMPTP — Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. The AMPTP negotiating team — made up of Hollywood executives like Disney CEO Bob Iger and Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos — met with WGA negotiators multiple times, but, for weeks, were unable to come to any sort of agreement.
However, that has finally changed.
On the evening of September 24, 2023, it was announced that the WGA and the AMPTP had finally reached a tentative deal to end the 146-day writers’ strike.
The parties came to terms on a provisional three-year agreement, which will need to be ratified by WGA members to take effect, on Sunday after studios responded to last-minute union asks that day. Specifics of the deal affecting around 11,500 WGA members weren’t available as of press time, though they will undoubtedly emerge in the next few days as the union seeks to sell its members on the pact.
In an email sent by WGA leaders, the negotiating team called the deal “exceptional – with meaningful gains and protections for writers in every sector of the membership.”
While a tentative agreement to end the strike has been reached, it is important to remember that the writers’ strike could continue. Members of the WGA must now vote to approve the new contract agreement. Should the WGA members reject the contract, the strike would continue until another agreement can be reached and voted on.
According to multiple sources, the main sticking point that caused negotiations to spill over into the weekend was the use of artificial intelligence. The WGA wanted protections in place so that its writers would not be replaced by chatbots like ChatGPT. However, we do not know what the two sides could not come to an agreement on.
When it comes to streaming residuals, both the WGA and the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) demanded that the studios be more transparent in the actual streaming numbers. It’s only through complete transparency in terms of streaming numbers that proper residual amounts can be calculated.
While Hollywood’s writers may be all set to return to the studios, there is currently no timeline for the actors to return. A meeting between the AMPTP and SAG negotiators has not been announced at this time. SAG president Fran Drescher — best known for her starring role in The Nanny — has said that the guild is prepared to strike for six months.
Bob Iger has received a lot of backlash from Hollywood’s actors and SAG officials for comments made right before the SAG strike started. Iger said that some of the actors’ demands were not “realistic”, which did not sit well with the guild. Iger was called out multiple times for the fact that he has a private yacht and makes approximately $78,000 per day.
Disney Fanatic will keep readers updated as negotiations continue between SAG and the AMPTP.
