2023-04-17 17:00:34
The Writers Guild of America, West building in Los Angeles.
Michael Buckner/PMC
As the Writers Guild of America prepares to release the results of a strike authorization vote, the group representing studios and streamers in negotiations with the union is saying that member support for a potential work stoppage is “inevitable.”
“A strike authorization vote has always been part of the WGA’s plan, announced before the parties even exchanged proposals. Its inevitable ratification should come as no surprise to anyone,” the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) said in a statement on Monday, prior to the results of the vote being released. The AMPTP is currently locked in negotiations with the WGA on a new three-year film and television pact, as the May 1 expiration date for the union’s current agreement nears.
The AMPTP further added in its statement that, while its goal is to reach a “fair and reasonable agreement,” a deal “is only possible if the Guild is committed to turning its focus to serious bargaining by engaging in full discussions of the issues with the Companies and searching for reasonable compromises.” The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to the WGA for comment.
WGA members have been voting on whether to authorize a strike since April 11, with polls closing on Monday at noon and its results expected to emerge later that day. The vote does not ensure the guild will go on strike, but could provide the labor group with a bargaining chip to use in negotiations if a wide margin of members empower it to call a strike. Guild leaders have been heavily encouraging members to vote “yes” since the vote was announced in early April.
The WGA and AMPTP have been negotiating a successor agreement to a contract covering around 11,500 film and television writers at the latter’s Sherman Oaks headquarters since March 20. Information about the progress of discussions has been scant, as the parties have agreed not to speak publicly about the substance of those talks. However, in early April the WGA alleged that “the studios need to respond to the crisis writers face” in negotiations, while in Monday’s statement the AMPTP suggested that the union has not been fully committed to reaching a deal prior to its strike authorization vote.
The union is targeting, first and foremost, compensation for writers in this round of talks. Some of its strategies for raising overall pay for members include setting higher wage floors across the board, standardizing fees for streaming and theatrical films, expanding span protection (which shields writers being compensated per episode from working for long periods on short-order series), regulating mini rooms and instituting a mandatory two “steps” (points of payment) for feature writers. The WGA is additionally pushing for minimum television writing staff sizes and a minimum number of weeks of employment, THR reported in February.
Artificial intelligence is also in the union’s crosshairs in this round of talks. Amid the rise of ChatGPT and other chatbots that produce written material, the guild has clarified that it will be advocating to prohibit AI-produced or AI-rewritten content from being covered under the contract. Banning companies from assigning writers adaptations of writing originally generated by the technology is also a priority.
Meanwhile, several prominent studios and streamers continue to be in cost-cutting mode. As Disney conducts thousands of layoffs this spring and Showtime has recently slimmed down as it prepares to merge with the streamer Paramount+, it seems unlikely that the coalition of companies that make up the AMPTP will be willing to significantly boost writer-related costs. Moreover, companies remain highly aware that unions like the Directors Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA, which negotiate this year after the writers, are closely watching what the writers receive in 2023 as a potential precedent.
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