WGA Strike Has End in Sight as Guild Reaches Tentative Deal with Studios

Less than a week before it would become the longest Writers Guild of America strike ever taken by its members, the 146-day WGA strike has a tentative deal in place and an end in sight. Brokered on Sunday between the WGA negotiators and those of the studios and streamers represented by the AMPTP, this “exceptional” deal with “meaningful gains and protections for writers in every sector of the membership,” according to a WGA email shared by many members on social media, will finally bring resolution to a hard-fought battle resisting unfair pay and the encroaching threat of AI.

According to Variety, the “language used around the use of generative AI” was one of the final points to be hammered out–and was, seemingly, one of the most aggressive items on the studios’ agenda. The exact parameters and guardrails established by the Guild won’t be released until the agreement is completely solidified. While WGA picketing is now suspended (the Guild encouraged its members to support the still-picketing actors of SAG-AFTRA), there are a few steps that remain for its deal to go through and for the strike to truly end.

This deal will now be voted on by the WGA’s Negotiating Committee, who will then recommend it to the WGAW Board and WGAE Council for approval. These bodies will then vote on whether to authorize a ratification vote among the union’s members. These leadership votes are “tentatively scheduled for Tuesday if the language is settled,” according to a WGA email.

As the details of the deal come out later this week (if all goes according to plan among the membership), the industry at large will see a public, powerful message about the future of film and TV production–and how that future resists the suits attempting to move it further and further towards an automated, exploitative assembly line of content.