The leaders of the Writers Guild of the United States (WGA) approved the salary agreement negotiated with the film and television studios on Tuesday (26) night and authorized the return to work of its members on Wednesday (27), after a strike that lasted almost five months and paralyzed Hollywood.
The powerful writers’ union announced in a statement that “the board of directors voted unanimously to recommend the agreement,” adding that “the strike ends at 12:01 a.m.” this Wednesday Los Angeles time.
The agreement may still be rejected by the 11,500 screenwriters represented by the WGA in the United States, as it will be put to a vote between October 2 and 9, the union said.
However, most industry analysts believe ratification will be a formality and work on stalled TV and film projects should resume while the process is completed.
If the agreement is finalized, many American series and films that were suspended in the script phase will be able to resume activities. Talk shows, which need writers for their presenters, should also return to the air next month.
Thousands of film and television writers stopped work in early May in pursuit of demands such as better pay, greater rewards for creating successful shows and protection against artificial intelligence.
They picketed for months outside studio offices including Netflix and Disney and received support from striking actors in mid-July, leaving normally busy Hollywood lots virtually empty in a dramatic show of force.
After five days of intense negotiations between the union and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), the WGA announced the principle of agreement.
“We can say, with great pride, that this agreement is exceptional – with significant gains and protections for screenwriters across all sectors of the association,” the union said.
The group cited important achievements in terms of remuneration, as well as protection to regulate the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Achievements of the agreement
On Tuesday, the WGA released details of the agreement reached on Sunday. The content shows that the studios gave in to most of the union’s demands and appears to represent a victory for the screenwriters.
The agreement includes, in particular, a bonus for the success of a series or film on streaming platforms, when “20% or more of the service’s national subscribers watch the production in the first 90 days after its premiere”.
Regarding AI, the scriptwriters have received assurances that they will not be replaced by robots. The agreement allows them to rewrite scripts generated by an AI and be considered the only authors of this type of work, without receiving lower compensation.
One of the clauses also states that “the use of scriptwriters’ material to train AI is prohibited.” This means that the machines cannot receive texts from unionized screenwriters to improve their narrative capabilities.
This last point was a topic that studios remained silent on for a long time.
Actors on strike
Despite the eventual breakthrough with the screenwriters, Hollywood will still be far from normal, as the actors – represented by the union SAG-AFTRA – remain on strike.
The walkout began in July and may continue for several more weeks as several of SAG-AFTRA’s demands go beyond the WGA’s demands.
In the current scenario, negotiations promise to be difficult, mainly because the studios know that an agreement with the actors will serve as a parameter for the technical professions in the industry, which must have their collective agreements renewed next year.
And even the return of actors to work will not mean the immediate resumption of the industry, as it will take months for everyone to return to the sets of the halted productions.
© Agence France-Presse
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