6 major takeaways from Hollywood writers’ new WGA contract
Hollywood writers are largely celebrating the Writers Guild of America’s new minimum basic agreement as the strike against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the coalition of major studios, comes to an end after 148 days. The new contract still needs membership approval — members will vote between Oct. 2 and Oct. 9 — but it has been approved by union leadership. The contract guarantees regulations on artificial intelligence use, minimum staff numbers for writers rooms, and residual compensation for writers that work on streaming shows and movies.
“We can say, with great pride, that this deal is exceptional — with meaningful gains and protections for writers in every sector of the membership,” the WGA negotiating committee said on Sunday. A summary of the agreement has been published online; it’s a simplified version of the actual document.
Susan Schurman, a distinguished professor at Rutgers University’s Labor Studies and Employment Relations department, told Polygon that the WGA got an “excellent” agreement: “They got much of what they were looking for in terms of compensation.”
It’s a big moment for the WGA — and all union members — as “hot strike summer” transitions into fall. The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists’ Hollywood actors are still on strike as SAG-AFTRA’s video game performers enter their own bargaining sessions with a strike authorization in hand; WGA’s strike is a signal to those workers that unions (and withholding labor) work to secure better, more fair deals. With everything from AI use and compensation to transparency and wage increases, the WGA deal may be used to set a standard of expectations for other creative industries, so let’s break
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