After five months of lengthy discussions and strenuous protests, the Writers’ Guild of America (WGA) has ended the strike after agreeing on a three-year deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). With around 11,000 votes on the table, the deal received 99% in favor of ratification from the WGA on Oct. 9.
The contract, which started on Sept. 25, will last until May 1, 2026. Within those years, AMPTP has agreed to multiple of the WGA’s demands: an increase to minimum wage, heavier regulation on company use of AI writing generators, increased pension and health fund rates, better residuals, and improvements to the terms of length of employment and size of writing teams.
While the writers celebrate this new deal and continue to support the Screen Actors’ Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) in its continued protests, people across the nation have mixed reactions to the news.
“The strike was worth it,” X (formerly known as Twitter) user thecostumeczar said. “WGA got major concessions on AI, which, honestly, AMPTP should thank them for before AI destroyed the whole industry just for some short term profit.”
As some fans show support and respect for the WGA and its new deal, others express a distaste for the entirety of the WGA’s actions.
“Thank goodness!” X (formerly known as Twitter) user WFerraiolo7367 said. “I was wondering where the next [bad] movies and television shows were going to come from. Now I know. It’ll be the same talentless hacks as before.”
As of now, SAG-AFTRA is still struggling with AMPTP’s negotiations for a contract that satisfies both parties. Despite its counterpart WGA’s continuous encouragement for the AMPTP to treat the screen actors with the same amount of respect and fairness they received throughout the 148-day protest, the goal has yet to be reached. Some of the writers are falling right back into place at the picket line with SAG-AFTRA despite the end of WGA’s protests.
Yet, in three years time, those same guild writers will be facing renegotiation deals as the recently ratified contract comes to close; possibly repeating the events of the 2023’s writers strike once again.
