LOS ANGELES (CNS) - Leaders of the Writers Guild of America endorsed a proposed contract agreement with Hollywood studios Tuesday, setting the stage for a ratification vote by union members, while also agreeing to officially end the writers' strike at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday.
"This allows writers to return to work during the ratification process, but does not affect the membership's right to make a final determination on contract approval," the WGA negotiating committee wrote in a message to union members. "There will be meetings for current members this week before the ratification vote begins."
L.A.'s Afternoon News spoke to entertainment attorney Johnathan Handel who said the writers got "a lot" of what they wanted in the new deal.
A schedule was not immediately announced for the ratification vote.
The proposed three-year contract agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the studios, was announced Wednesday night after five consecutive days of negotiating sessions.
With the boards of the WGA's East Coast and West Coast branches endorsing the deal Tuesday, the union also released the first detailed overview of the agreement, which includes stepped increases of minimum salaries which will jump by 5% upon ratification, 4% in May 2024 and 3.5% in May 2025. There are also increases in health and pension contributions.
The proposed contract also includes restrictions on studios' use of artificial intelligence, barring AI from writing or rewriting literary material and preventing AI-generated material from being considered source material, meaning it can't "undermine a writer's credit."
The proposal also includes a new residual formula for streaming program that boosts pay for particularly successful programs. According to the guild, shows or films "that are viewed by 20% or more of the service's domestic subscribers in the first 90 days of release, or in the first 90 days in any subsequent exhibition year, get a bonus equal to 50% of the fixed domestic and foreign residual, with views calculated as hours streamed domestically of the season or film divided by runtime."
Also included are increases in pay for writers employed on TV series, along with employment guarantees for set numbers of writers on series, based on the number of episodes being produced.
A full summary prepared by the WGA of the contract proposal is available here.
The WGA went on strike on May 2, and they were joined on picket lines in mid-July by the SAG-AFTRA actors' union. With the WGA strike seemingly resolved, the focus is expected to shift to negotiations with actors, likely using the writers' union contract proposal as a template. There has been no official word of any planned resumption of negotiations between SAG-AFTRA and AMPTP.
The AMPTP previously reached a contract agreement with the Directors Guild of America.
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