Writers Guild of America strike officially finished

Cutting to the short and quick of it, the Writer's Guild strike is officially over. The announcement came yesterday (Feb. 12) evening from WGA West president Patrick Verrone, who said, "The strike is over. Our membership has voted. Writers can go back to work."

The announcement comes after 100 days of picket lines. Final ballots for the new contract agreements showed outstanding support for the newly negotiated terms, with 92.% of 3,775 ballots cast in favor of returning to work.

In response to this agreement, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers issued a statement saying, "This is a day of relief and optimism for everyone in the entertainment industry. The strike has been extraordinarily hard for all of us... We hope now to focus our collective efforts on what this industry does best--writers, directors, actors, production crews, and entertainment companies working together to deliver great content."

With the return of writers, part of the Spring television season should be salvaged with at least a few episodes popping up before the Summer. This should also stop any egregious pauses in film production a year from now. The most immediate effect of things will be a return for writers to late-night television shows and a normalized Oscar ceremony.

Oddly, the actual ratification of the contract will begin later with a mail-in-ballot to be tallied on Feb. 25. With such high support so far, though, there seems no chance of a backslide, and the expected ratification should be finalized on Feb. 26.

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