Writers strike ends as new deal goes to ratification vote

Writers Guild of America (WGA) leaders have voted to recommend the union’s tentative agreement with Hollywood companies and have ended the nearly five month-long writers strike. 

The WGA West board and WGA East council gave the film and TV contract agreement a unanimous recommendation on Tuesday (September 26) afternoon and said the strike would end as of 12.01am Pacific time on Wednesday. 

The move will allow writers to return to work immediately, while the WGA membership goes through the process of ratifying the tentative agreement, which was announced by the Guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) on Sunday. But, said the Guild, it “does not affect the membership’s right to make a final determination on contract approval.” 

The ratification vote will take place October 2-9. 

WGA officials said the tentatively agreed contract, which runs until May 1, 2026, was “won with the power of member solidarity and our union siblings over a 148-day strike” and “incorporates meaningful gains and protections for writers in every segment of the membership.” 

The agreement has an estimated value of $233m a year, said the WGA, less than the $429m value put on Guild proposals just before the strike began at the start of May, but nearly three times the $86m the Guild says was the value of the AMPTP’s offer at that time. 

Details of the agreement were revealed in links to a Memorandum of Agreement and summary sent to WGA members (see below). The Guild also provided a chart comparing the terms of the agreement to those of both the Guild’s and the AMPTP’s pre-strike proposals. 

The agreement calls for a 5% increase in writers’ basic pay in the first year of the contract’s term, 4% in the second year and 3.5% in the third. The Guild had proposed increases of 6%, 5% and 5% and the AMPTP had offered 4%, 3% and 2%. 

In the contentious area of viewership-based streaming residuals, the agreement calls for a 50% bonus residual for high-budget SVoD series and films viewed by 20% of a streaming service’s domestic subscribers in the first 90 days of release. 

On data transparency, the Guild says companies will provide it (subject to a confidentiality agreement) with figures for the total number of hours a title was streamed both domestically and internationally. 

The use of artificial intelligence (AI) was another contentious issue in negotiations and the Guild says that under the agreement AI-generated writing “is not considered literary material, source material or assigned material.” Writers will be able to use AI when they are writing, if companies consent, and companies will need to tell writers if any material given to them has been generated by AI. 

On staffing levels for TV series writers’ rooms, the agreement stipulates three writers for series of up to six episodes, rising to six writers for series of more than 13 episodes. The Guild had proposed levels of one writer per episode up to six episodes and then an additional writer for each two additional episodes.

While the writers stoppage appears to be ending, of course, the SAG-AFTRA film and TV strike continues. On Tuesday, a report that a resumption of talks between the actors union and the AMPTP might be imminent drew a response from SAG-AFTRA denying that any talks are currently set.  

The full message sent to WGA members on Tuesday appears below: