Hollywood writers’ strike nears end as union and studios reach agreement

polygon.com:

The writers’ strike is (almost) over. The Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, a collection of Hollywood’s biggest studios, came to a “tentative agreement” on a new contract on Sunday, heralding an end to the WGA strike that started on May 2.

The agreement still needs to be ratified: first, by the writers’ negotiating committee, then by the WGA West board and the WGA East council in votes scheduled for Tuesday, and finally by the union’s membership. For now, writers remain on strike, but picketing has been suspended. It’s possible the union leadership will lift its restraining order and allow writers to return to work from Tuesday, before the membership ratification vote takes place.

Disclosure: Rank-and-file staffers at Polygon are members of the Vox Media Union, which is affiliated with the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE). The Vox Media Union’s collective bargaining agreement is separate from the Minimum Basic Agreement, the labor contract between screenwriters and television and film producers. The current labor dispute between the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and the Writers Guild of America (which consists of the WGAE and its sister union, the Writers Guild of America West) does not involve the newsroom unions that are affiliated with the WGAE.

The terms of the new deal were not announced, but will be published before the membership vote. “What remains now is for our staff to make sure everything we have agreed to is codified in final contract language,” the WGA explained in a statement. “And though we are eager to share the details of what has been achieved with you, we cannot do that until the last ‘i’ is dotted. To do so would