Illustration/photo from THR: Michael Buckner
After a hiatus of 101 days, the Writers Guild of America and Hollywood’s biggest movie and studio studios have set a date to return to the negotiating table: Friday, August 11.
The return to formal negotiations was announced on August 10, about a week after the two sides met for an exploratory meeting on talks between the two parties on August 4. It represents the first step in what could be a long road to bringing the parties together. Resolution and termination of the writers’ strike.
“Carole Lombardini has asked the WGA Negotiation Committee to meet with the AMPTP negotiators on Friday,” the WGA said in an email to members on Aug. 10. “We expect AMPTP to provide responses to the WGA’s proposals. Our committee is back at the negotiating table ready to strike a fair deal, knowing that united WGA membership is behind us and underpinned by the continued support of our union allies. We will get back to you.”
The course of this development was not without drama. After the Aug. 4 meeting, the WGA informed members that AMPTP was seeking to use the deal agreed to by the Directors Guild of America earlier this summer as a model for joint issues such as pay increases and expressed willingness to increase its offer on a few writer’s TV minimums — but not writer’s issues. Fundamentals such as minimum room size for writers or success-based tailings, among other topics. (Read the The complete update of WGA Here.) AMPTP declined to comment on the Aug. 4 meeting. Writers criticized AMPTP’s August 4 bid as “insulting and intangible”.
While the clerks were initially optimistic about the August 4 meeting, the lack of results at the time served as another rallying cry for the clerks. On Wednesday, the WGA celebrated the 100th day of its strike, which has now officially passed the 2007 strike. Chris Keyser, co-chair of the WGA’s Negotiating Committee, in an interview this week with THR, The 100-day mark has been called the “AMPTP infamy.”
After circulating whispers of the previous meeting for several days, the WGA alerted its members last week that AMPTP President Lombardini had called to schedule a time to “discuss negotiations.” The meeting was scheduled for August 4, but the union lowered expectations by sending a long memo to members on August 3 warning them that entertainment companies might not yet be willing to make major concessions. We challenge the studios and AMPTP to come to the meeting they have called for [last] Friday with New Evidence: Be willing to make a fair deal and begin to repair the damage your strikes and business practices have caused to workers in this industry,” the 2023 WGA Negotiations Committee wrote.
The letter prompted AMPTP to send its own terse press release, describing the union’s letter as “unfortunate”. The group added, “This strike affected thousands of people in the industry, and we take that very seriously. Our only playbook is to get people back to work.”
Now in its 101st day, the writers’ strike has prompted what is essentially a shutdown of syndicated written production in the United States and, in some cases, abroad, affecting projects including Deadpool 3 And Gladiator 2. Meanwhile, with artist union SAG-AFTRA joining picket lines on July 14, production of Marvel’s major films and TV series has also been delayed. code to Netflix Weird things.
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