The heads of the powerful screenwriters union Writers Guild of America (WGA) approved yesterday, Tuesday, evening the latest salary agreement which was concluded with the studios and they requested the return to work of their members from today, after a strike which lasted almost five months and paralyzed Hollywood.
The union’s board “voted unanimously in favor of the agreement” on wages, the union announced via the X platform. “The strike ends at 00:01” today, Los Angeles time. Specifically the agreement it can still theoretically be rejected by the 11,500 screenwriters represented by the WGA in the US as it will be the subject of a vote, which will take place “between October 2nd and 9th,” the union announced.
But most of the experts in the said industry believe that the ratification of the agreement, which includes “significant gains” in terms of pay, as well as protections to frame the use of artificial intelligence, will be standard, according to APE-MPE.
Pending the completion of the process, the screenwriters can therefore return to work from today. It is thus expected that it will become possible to resume work on numerous American series and films which were blocked in the early stages of their writing. The evening television talk shows, presenters who need written texts are also expected to return to television within the next month.
The actors are still on strike
But even after the writers’ ratification of the end of their strike, Hollywood is still far from a return to normality. And that’s because the actors, represented by the SAG-AFTRA union, continue to strike.
A resolution of this labor conflict, which continues from mid-July, may still require weeks. Because some of SAG-AFTRA’s lawsuits go further than the WGA’s. Negotiations are therefore expected to be difficult. Especially since the studios know that any concessions they make to the actors will serve as reference point for the technical professions of the industry, whose collective agreements are due to be renewed next year. Even after the actors return to work, it will certainly take months to get everyone back on set and cover the backlogs that have accumulated in Hollywood productions.
The content of the agreement
The WGA also released details of the deal it struck with the studios last Tuesday night, the exact contents of which were not known until after it was signed on Sunday. The settlement shows the studios giving in to most of the union’s demands and appears to drop one victory of the screenwriters. It mainly includes one bonus when a series or film becomes a hit on a streaming platform, i.e. when “20% or more of (the platform’s) subscribers nationwide” see the production “within the first 20 days of its premiere.”
When it comes to artificial intelligence, the screenwriters they also achieved guarantees that they will not be replaced by robots. The agreement allows them to rework scripts, which were originally created by an artificial intelligence, and at the same time be considered the sole creators of those works and thus not be paid less. A provision also provides that “Exploitation of AI training script material is prohibited». In other words, the bots won’t be able to be fed scripts from syndicated creators to improve their storytelling abilities – a point the studios have long been silent on.
Source: News Beast
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