Because the Writers Guild of America started talks on a brand new studio contract, the Writers Guild Workers Union (WGSU) entered its fifth week on strike, staging a picket line in entrance of the SAG-AFTRA headquarters on Los Angeles’ Miracle Mile, the place the WGA is assembly with the Alliance of Movement Image and Tv Producers.
100 fifteen staffers for the Writers Guild of America West went on strike Feb. 17 after six months of on-and-off negotiations with union management failed to provide a contract. Final week, WGA West offered a brand new counter-proposal to WGSU totaling $800,000 in further wages for the primary 12 months of the contract, however the WGSU rejected it.
“Whereas the workers union has threatened to picket WGA members concerned in negotiating the MBA, your 2026 Negotiating Committee, chief negotiator and government workers (who are usually not within the bargaining unit and never on strike) will perform the important thing obligation to cut price the most effective contract doable for writers,” WGAW government director Ellen Stutzman mentioned in a memo to guild members on Friday.
In its personal assertion, WGSU mentioned that there was some progress made in talks final week however famous that WGAW was nonetheless not budging on key staffer points.
“Wednesday night, administration agreed to satisfy with us, however as soon as once more with out Ellen,” the WGSU posted on Instagram Friday. “There, the events started making real progress. Nonetheless, the next morning, administration as soon as once more referred to as the WGSU issuing an ultimatum requiring us to drop core union points reminiscent of seniority and job protections. We’re disheartened that administration continues to maintain us on strike by means of its bad-faith ways.”
Because the WGSU strike has continued, WGA West cancelled its annual awards ceremony that was set to be held on the JW Marriott Resort on March 8. The WGA East, whose staffers are underneath a separate union contract and are usually not on strike, continued with their very own ceremony in New York.
The WGA will begin prolonged talks with the AMPTP over their collective bargaining settlement this week, forward of a Could 1 expiration date for the prevailing contract, which was agreed upon after a 148-day strike in 2023. The solvency of the guild’s well being plan—strained by rising prices and declining contributions amid industry-wide cutbacks in manufacturing greenlights and author hirings—is predicted to be a core problem of this 12 months’s talks, together with discussions on synthetic intelligence protections and minimal staffing necessities.
