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Finally, a deal! WGA reaches tentative agreement with AMPTP

The Writer’s Guild of America reached a tentative agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

A couple striking together in front of the Universal Studios sign.
Daniel Berg (left), a Writer, Director and DM, stands with Nicole Peurifoy (right) a SAG member and WGA support staff. Being able to strike together when they have time after her husband, Berg, picked up a non-industry job during the strike is important to them both. “I do feel like the times that we can get away to strike together, we do,” Peurifoy said.

After 146 days of picketing, the Writers Guild of America reached a tentative labor agreement. While WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers still have yet to finalize specific contract language, the Hollywood writers are celebrating today.

Travis Viera-Liden, a collection development specialist at USC libraries, and former SCA student, is glad there wasn’t another extension and that there are terms in the works.

Travis Viera-Liden: I think at least with the coverage that I’ve been I’ve been following, you know, like they were trying to extend it, meaning the studios and other folks were trying to extend it. And it really was detrimental to the artists. So I’m glad that there’s some kind of terms happening because I know a lot of folks have been out of work for a long time.

However, Benjamin Nestor, a SCA graduate student in Film & TV Production program, feels as though this is just the beginning and that a tentative agreement still has a long way to go before being finalized.

Benjamin Nestor: I think tentative agreements means that there’s still more work to be done, so hopefully they’ll get closer to a good compromise. But I’m really excited to be able to work with, try to get an internship for jobs in the industry and actually be working on content. And it’s good that the writers are actually going to get paid what they deserve. And, you know, they’re getting what they want out of it.

On Sunday night, the WGA negotiation committee shared the news in an email to guild members. It said, “this deal is exceptional with meaningful gains and protections for writers in every sector of the membership.” However, the committee’s statement also clarified that the strike is not over until the agreement is officially ratified and voted on by the board and council.

This has not damped optimism for Maddi Moran, a senior theater major minoring in Entertainment Industry. She talked about her excitement for writers to return to work with better conditions.

Maddi Moran: I’m really excited for writers to eventually be able to start working again because I have a lot of friends that graduated between the last one or two years and they were just starting to get their footing in the industry and had some incredible opportunities and then they had to leave that because of the strike. And I very much so am in support of the strike because I believe it’s super important to modify and update the different policies and try to make it equitable and a fair wage and everything else for writers. But I’m excited to hopefully, hopefully the agreement will be something that will not only help writers like in the future with what they’re doing, but also get back to work.

Members of WGA were also encouraged to continue picketing with their SAG-AFTRA counterparts as AMPTP now turns its attention to the actors of Hollywood. The acting guild’s members seek similar contract updates like improving wages, working conditions, and health and pension benefits.

Tim Dowling is a journalist and author who writes a weekly column in The Guardian. He’s a WGA member and here’s what he had to say about the agreement.

Tim Dowling: You know we finally have an agreement, and like I think people are jazzed to like get back to work and start doing what we love doing. It’s been a long 5 months and, you know, it’s been really tough on everybody. Whether a writer or not in the business. Hopefully, they’ll make a deal with the actors soon and we can get production back and get everybody across the board back to work.

Details of the agreement will be available once the deal is finalized.

For Annenberg Media, I’m Vishu Reddy