Labor dispute: US screenwriters and studios find “provisional agreement”

After almost five months of strike, there is a “tentative agreement” between the screenwriters’ union and the major studios and streaming providers in the USA. The Writers Guild of America (WGA) announced yesterday in Los Angeles that this is a fundamental agreement that still needs to be finalized.

US President Joe Biden welcomed the agreement, which demonstrated the “power of collective bargaining”. “There is simply no alternative for employers and employees to come together and negotiate with good intentions toward an agreement that makes a company stronger and ensures the pay, benefits and dignity that workers deserve,” the president said in a statement .

Members must ratify agreement

According to the information, the preliminary agreement is followed by a further procedure until the contract is concluded, at the end of which there is a ratification vote by the members. According to WGA information, the executive committees of the two unions East and West could give their approval to the drafted paper in a meeting planned for Tuesday. They could then also vote to lift the work restrictions and end the strike, even if the members’ vote was still ongoing.

Hollywood writers went on strike at the beginning of May. “We can say with great pride that this agreement is exceptional – with significant gains and safeguards for authors in every sector of our membership,” the WGA said. However, details cannot yet be provided.

The WGA also made it clear: No one will start working again until the union explicitly allows this. “Until then we are still on strike.” Now the WGA members should no longer take to the streets for themselves, but rather to support the actors and actresses who are also on strike.

Labor dispute since the beginning of May

WGA representatives and representatives of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) sat at the negotiating table for several days – for the first time in many weeks. It was said that Disney boss Bob Iger and CEO David Zaslav from media giant Warner Bros. Discovery took part in the talks.

After unsuccessful negotiations for better working conditions, the more than 11,000 screenwriters of the Writers Guild began the industrial action at the beginning of May. The writers called for, among other things, salary increases, better working conditions, higher subsidies for health and retirement benefits and regulation of the use of artificial intelligence (AI).

In mid-July, around 160,000 actors from the acting union SAG-AFTRA joined the authors with similar demands. The fronts between the producers and the actors’ union continue to harden – there have been no talks since the strike began in July.

Hollywood almost paralyzed

The first double strike by actors and screenwriters in the USA in more than 60 years has almost brought Hollywood to a standstill. Due to the labor dispute, practically no films and series could be filmed. Due to the strike, actors are also not allowed to advertise their films. Film releases have been postponed and the awards season has also been affected. The world’s most important television award, the Emmy – originally scheduled for mid-September – will now not be awarded until January 2024. The “Governors Awards” gala with the awarding of honorary Oscars, initially planned for November, was also postponed until January.

Many employees in the entertainment industry have taken to the streets with posters and chants in recent weeks and months. Celebrities such as Jane Fonda, Sean Penn, Bryan Cranston, Anna Kendrick and Colin Farrell also mingled with the picket lines.