Writers Strike Nears End As WGA Reaches Tentative Deal With AMPTP
Following five days of negotiations, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) have struck a tentative deal to end the ongoing writers strike.
The agreement was reached on Sunday evening, 146 days after the writers began their work stoppage.
In a letter to its members, the WGA announced:
We have reached a tentative agreement on a new 2023 MBA, which is to say an agreement in principle on all deal points, subject to drafting final contract language.
What are the terms of the new deal? The WGA hasn’t shared details yet and says it won’t until “the last ‘I’ is dotted.” That said, the union did say the negotiations ended in an “exceptional” deal with “meaningful gains and protections for writers in every sector of the membership.”
What’s left to do? The WGA says it must ensure everything agreed to is codified in the final contract language. After that, the WGA’s negotiation committee will vote to send it to the WGA West and East boards for approval. If both boards vote in favor of the new agreement, a vote among the full WGA membership will be held. After all parties agree, the board will vote on ending the ongoing strike. After the 2007-2008 strike, it took four days for the tentative agreement to be ratified, and the strike halted.
What about the actors strike? For the time being, the SAG-AFTRA strike will continue, but there is little question that a resolution between the writers and the AMPTP will hasten the end of the actors strike, which has been going on for 74 days. Although Sunday’s agreement signified the end of WGA picketing, the guild did encourage its members to join SAG-AFTRA members who are still picketing until a resolution to that stoppage is reached.
What does this mean for WGA-repped animation shows? Here is a historical list of WGA-covered animated series, both past and present. We’ve indicated shows that were still in development or production when the strikes began. Some of those have not been renewed or are ending their runs, but the news hasn’t been made official yet. It’s also important to note that animated shows were allowed to continue production of shows for which scripts had already been written, meaning that many of the productions continued unhindered by the stoppage.
