{"id":654952,"date":"2026-03-14T11:30:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-14T11:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/654952\/"},"modified":"2026-03-14T11:30:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-14T11:30:12","slug":"writers-guild-brace-for-tough-negotiations-with-major-studios","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/654952\/","title":{"rendered":"Writers Guild brace for tough negotiations with major studios"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It has been nearly three years since Hollywood writers went on a historic strike that lasted 148 days<\/a> and ushered in an extraordinary period of labor unrest that virtually shut down the film and TV business.<\/p>\n

Now, writers are poised to commence another round of bargaining with the major studios on a new three-year film and TV contract. Few observers think the union is girding for another showdown, especially at a time when many of its members are struggling to find work amid media consolidation and belt-tightening.<\/p>\n

But in advance of negotiations that begin on Monday , union leaders are eager to dispel any perception that they might have scaled back their demands.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur members have shown many times that they\u2019re willing to fight for what we need as a collective group,\u201d WGA West President Michele Mulroney said in an interview. \u201cAnd there\u2019s no exception here.\u201d<\/p>\n

With its current contract expiring on May 1, the WGA hopes to improve its members\u2019 healthcare plans, increase streaming residuals and expand AI protections<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Michele <\/p>\n

Michele Mulroney speaks as the Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) and Writers Guild of America (WGA) join GLAAD in releasing the 11TH Annual GLAAD Studio Responsibility Index at The Village at Ed Gould Plaza Los Angeles LGBT Center in Los Angeles, California, on September 14, 2023.<\/p>\n

(Michael Tran\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Ellen Stutzman, the union\u2019s executive director, said despite popular belief, the studios have weathered the transition from cable television to streaming \u201cvery well,\u201d citing their efforts to maximize revenue with streaming bundling, rising subscription fees and advertising revenue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWriters are watching as Netflix and Paramount are fighting it out to acquire Warner Bros… Paramount is spending $81 billion,\u201d said Stutzman. \u201cThere\u2019s money for a fair deal for writers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The union leaders agree that this year\u2019s negotiations are all focused on the sustainability of a writer\u2019s career.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the major studios in negotiations, said in a statement that they look forward \u201cto engaging in a constructive and collaborative bargaining process with the WGA. Through continued good-faith dialogue, we are confident we can reach balanced solutions that support talented writers while sustaining the long-term success and stability of our industry and its workforce.\u201d<\/p>\n

A top priority for the WGA is to increase the caps that companies contribute to the union\u2019s healthcare plan. Union officials say the current cap has remain unchanged for two decades as healthcare contributions have steadily declined due to fewer writers working.<\/p>\n

AI is also top of mind for the WGA.<\/p>\n

In 2023, the guild secured various AI protections by establishing that AI isn\u2019t a writer and nothing it produces is considered literary material.<\/a> <\/p>\n

But as major studios start to make deals with AI companies, like Disney\u2019s $1 billion investment into OpenAI\u2019s Sora platform<\/a>, many writers are concerned about how their work could be used.<\/p>\n

\u201cAI is using [studios\u2019] IP, which is stuff that we wrote to license these models,\u201d said John August, the co-host of the \u201cScriptnotes\u201d podcast and WGA\u2019s negotiating committee co-chair. \u201cWith the Sora deal, it seems clear that the companies intend to monetize this IP for use with AI.\u201d<\/p>\n

August says the union will be skeptical toward arguments that it\u2019s still too early to seek more safeguards around such a nascent industry, citing the union\u2019s past history with the rise of DVDs and the internet and how profoundly those technologies changed the compensation for writers.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re taking the work that we created to generate AI outputs, we are owed money. They\u2019re using our work to do something down the road,\u201d added August.<\/p>\n

WGA\u2019s negotiating committee also is looking to boost streaming residuals, expand the minimum number of people allowed in a writers\u2019 room and add protections for scribes working on pilots.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe very much hope that lessons were learned in 2023 and that the AMPTP will come to the table ready to take our proposal seriously and to make a fair deal, and to do that quickly,\u201d Mulroney said. \u201cIt provides stability for the companies and for our membership. It\u2019s better for everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

WGA is entering contract negotiations nearly a month after the actors\u2019 union, SAG-AFTRA, began its bargaining sessions. Last week,
the AMPTP said it was extending negotiations<\/a> another seven days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It has been nearly three years since Hollywood writers went on a historic strike that lasted 148 days…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":625669,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[691,1582,276,638,277676,142559,3195,277675,2961,224,5337,120712,13141,119530,4143,277674,15742,75576,8066,49253],"class_list":["post-654952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-ai","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-company","tag-fair-deal","tag-healthcare-plan","tag-industry","tag-john-august","tag-la","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-major-studio","tag-member","tag-negotiation","tag-revenue","tag-streaming-residual","tag-union","tag-wga","tag-work","tag-writer"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116227305128402325","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=654952"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/654952\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=654952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=654952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=654952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}