AFSCME congratulates Hollywood writers who are members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) on reaching a tentative collective bargaining agreement with the studios they’ve been striking against for nearly five months.
The tentative agreement, which has yet to be voted on by the membership, was announced on Sunday. In an update to members, the WGA negotiating committee called the deal “exceptional.”
“We can say, with great pride, that this deal is exceptional – with meaningful gains and protections for writers in every sector of the membership,” the committee wrote to the guild’s 11,000 members.
The writers won concessions on most of their demands, according to news reports, including increases in royalty payments for streaming content and protections from the use of artificial intelligence by studios. Details of the agreement will be provided to members after a vote by the leadership boards of the guild. The vote is expected today.
“What we have won in this contract – most particularly, everything we have gained since May 2nd – is due to the willingness of this membership to exercise its power, to demonstrate its solidarity, to walk side-by-side, to endure the pain and uncertainty of the past 146 days,” the negotiating committee also wrote. “It is the leverage generated by your strike, in concert with the extraordinary support of our union siblings, that finally brought the companies back to the table to make a deal.”
The power and solidarity of workers striking together to demand improvements to their wages, benefits and working conditions – that’s what AFSCME calls the union difference. Union members earn significantly more, have better benefits and working conditions, as well as work-life balance, than non-unionized workers.
Our union continues to stand by Hollywood actors who are members of SAG-AFTRA and have been on strike since mid-July, demanding pay increases, better benefits and protection from artificial intelligence, among other things.