The Writers’ Strike is Over

Movies

The Writer’s Strike is officially over. As of 12:01 AM Pacific on Wednesday, September 27, the members of the WGA will be allowed to go back to work, as the deal between the union and the AMPTP has been… okay, not approved but “suggested” by union leaders. WGA members will now vote on whether to ratify the deal, but until that happens, the writers can write again – and it’s pretty much a given that it will happen. The deal, if ratified, will last from September 25, 2023, to May 1, 2026. This marks the end of the second-longest strike in the WGA’s history at 148 days to 1988’s 153-day strike. The actors’ strike is still ongoing. Deadline has a breakdown of the stipulations in the deal.

It looks like the writers – or the union, anyway – got pretty much everything they wanted. They’re getting better residuals (the specifics are a numerical hurricane, but the result is more money), an increase in pay raises in line with the Directors Guild (less than what they wanted, but come on already), and minimum staffing and longer guaranteed work on TV shows. In terms of artificial intelligence, AI can’t be used to augment a writer’s work, although a writer can choose to use it if he wants; moreover, AI can’t be used to “write or rewrite literary material,” which I guess protects screenwriters from getting pushed out of adapting screenplays from books and such. AI can also not be trained with a writer’s material. If they don’t take this deal, they’re idiots.

There’s one stipulation to the residuals agreement that I imagine was a big factor in the studios offering this deal: the streaming numbers given to the writers must remain confidential. Many have guessed that the studio’s were so adamant about residuals because they don’t want to disclose their real ratings so they can fudge the numbers in the press and make their viewerless shows and movies look better. That way, they can save face publicly and keep their stock prices from plummeting any faster. They gave way on AI a lot more than I thought they would; the initial offer from the AMPTP in May agreed only to a meeting about it in a year, which is nothing. I thought that was the real reason for the strike, with the writers fearing being replaced by a computer program, which must be a tantalizing proposition for studios that are increasingly forced to cut costs. The mandatory minimum number of writers is something that a lot of writers supposedly didn’t want, but the union wants it so they can collect more dues; that was their payoff, I guess.

Well, the writers did eventually get what they wanted. Hopefully, some good movies will come from this, but I’m not holding my breath on that score. I’m mostly glad the set workers these people forced out of jobs will be able to earn a living again.