Hollywood screenwriters, a term that groups film and television writers, put an end to their strike this Wednesday and return to work after 148 days of strike, one of the longest in the history of entertainment.
This was authorized by the Writers Guild of America, which represents 11,500 writers. The three internal committees voted unanimously this Tuesday on the principle of agreement they reached with the industry last Sunday and lifted the veto.
The approval to return to work came while waiting for the members to ratify the conditions of the pact. This process will begin next Monday and will conclude on October 9. Everything indicates that they will approve the agreement that will be valid for three years.
“Today our bargaining, governance and council committees voted to recommend the agreement,” according to a union post on social media. “The strike ends at zero hours and one second” on Wednesday, he stressed.
Given the economic situation of many of the strikers, the union did not want to prolong the wait and also facilitate the partial recovery of the production of films and programs.
The writers' union has achieved practically everything they demanded. Among other advances, it has achieved an increase in royalty payments for the repeated dissemination of long-term content on the platforms (the so-called residuals), an increase in the contribution to pensions, an increase in the minimum wage, wage equity measures and Above all, the guarantee that artificial intelligence (AI) will not invade the credits or compensation of writers or replace them, which is one of the greatest fears.
After a strike that started on May 2, the union leaders have chosen to allow people to go to work again and not accelerate the steps to present the final contract for ratification by members.
Hollywood cannot recover full normality of its operations, however, until the AMPTP, which is the consortium of studios, streaming platforms and other production companies, reaches an agreement with the actors union (SAG-AFTRA). The actors were planted in July and, like the writers, one of the most critical elements of the matter is the use of AI to impersonate them.
The two parties have not even sat down at the negotiating table in these more than two and a half months that have passed. But the writers' deal allows numerous reality shows and late-night shows to return to the screen.
