Writers Strike to End Wednesday After 148 Days

Brian Welk
·6 min read

The writers strike will officially end on Wednesday. After the WGA East and West Boards unanimously voted on Tuesday to approve the new contract negotiated by the WGA and the AMPTP, the guild is giving the green light for writers to return to work.

The restraining order will be lifted as of 12:01 am PT/3:01 am ET on Wednesday, September 27th, the guild announced to members. Writers will still be able to vote on ratifying the new contract, but they’ll be allowed to return to work.

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The guild has also released the summary of details of its new MBA, which you can review here, along with the full contract here. The guild now hopes its members will ratify it and work under it for the next three years. While writers are able to return to work immediately, a decision to get back to writing will not affect their ability to vote one way or the other for the contract.

The 2023 Writers Strike will end after 148 days. It’s the second longest strike in the guild’s history, only behind just the 1988 strike that lasted 153 days.

Among the gains the guild outlined, the guild obtained a 5 percent increase to minimum wages in the first year of the contract; an improved formula to calculate residuals for streaming shows; regulations and guaranteed minimum employment for pre-greenlight “mini-rooms”; a guarantee that a minimum number of staff writers will be employed on a series based on the number of episodes of that show; and even a bonus residual that rewards shows that exceed certain thresholds for viewership. The guild also got increases to its health fund and pension plans, among other benefits for feature writers, Appendix A writers, and more.

The guild also notably attained the first-ever substantive protections against the studios using AI to replace their work, which was the major sticking point in determining contract language that caused negotiations to drag on until Sunday night.

The guild did not however win the right to respect other unions’ picket lines, which would’ve meant that writers may not have returned to work if SAG-AFTRA was still on strike picketing a particular show or project. This is after all a negotiation. But the WGA has called the gains it achieved on Sunday night “exceptional” and “meaningful” for all writers, having addressed all of the guild’s deal points.

On May 2 when the strike was called, the guild wanted 6 percent minimum wage increases, and they ultimately settled to 5 percent, which is in line with what the DGA negotiated back in June.

On the issue of preserving the writers room and establishing a minimum number of writers, the writers got a minimum of at least three writers and three writer/producers for shows of up to six episodes, and up to a maximum of six writers for series of 13 episodes or more. It initially asked for up to a maximum of 12 writers in the room based on how many episodes were ordered. The WGA also got quite close to some of its original asks in terms of duration and the number of writers mandated for pre-greenlight rooms. The guild did not however win the right to require a writer still be employed by post-production.

In addition, the MBA now defines “showrunner” as a writer, which was another concern of members that such a minimum staffing proposal, if left up to a non-writing producer, could be toothless.

The idea behind these proposals was to preserve the writers room and not have studios try and get away with fewer writers being asked to deliver the same amount of episodes of a show. By asking for some writers to be employed during production and during post, it should help grow opportunities for writers and give the next generation experience on set.

AI was a major issue but the writers did get language that will prevent screenwriters’ work from being fed into a generative AI tool. Studios can’t have AI write or rewrite literary material or have it treated as source material. But the studios will still retain the right to do some experimenting with generative AI technology; it’s been the position of many on the management side that AI could still be a useful tool for writers. Here’s how the language is worded:

  • AI can’t write or rewrite literary material, and AI-generated material will not be considered source material under the MBA, meaning that AI-generated material can’t be used to undermine a writer’s credit or separated rights.

  • A writer can choose to use AI when performing writing services, if the company consents and provided that the writer follows applicable company policies, but the company can’t require the writer to use AI software (e.g., ChatGPT) when performing writing services.

  • The Company must disclose to the writer if any materials given to the writer have been generated by AI or incorporate AI-generated material.

  • The WGA reserves the right to assert that exploitation of writers’ material to train AI is prohibited by MBA or other law.

On the data transparency issue, if a show is viewed by more than 20 percent of a streaming service’s overall domestic subscribers in the first 90 days of release, a bonus kicks in equal to 50 percent of the fixed domestic and foreign residual. The guild has outlined what that means in extra dollars and cents depending on the length of an episode, and the policy takes effect starting January 1, 2024.

Subject to a confidentiality agreement, the companies have also agreed to provide the Guild the total number of hours streamed — both domestically and internationally — of original streaming programs. The guild can share some of that information with the membership “in aggregated form.”

That’s not exactly full data transparency that would be released to the public, but getting the studios to budge on all of the above was significant. It helps provide something closer to traditional backend pay to writers who could use it between jobs, and forces streamers to provide some data about what is a hit and what isn’t that could be disclosed to other members. It also means that shows that have produced billions of minutes of streams and views get paid more than a streaming show canceled after just one season.

The other improvements are numerous, including a guaranteed “2nd step” for screenwriters hired to rewrite original or non-original screenplays, as well as those acquired as spec scripts. There’s now additional residual benefits if you make a show or movie for an AVOD or FAST service, or if you’re a comedy or variety show writer for a streaming series. Writers also get a 5 percent increase in weekly pay rates, as well as a premium for being in a development room. There are increased span protections, and a renewal of the Showrunner Training Program, among other benefits.

Writers online are already heralding the deal, and they’ll have between October 2-9 to vote on ratifying the contract. There will also be member meetings up until then to discuss the benefits in more detail.

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