Strikes work. After 148 days of picketing, marching, chanting, and, most importantly, striking the Writers Guild of America has finally come to an agreement with the major studios to return to work under newly set work conditions and agreements for the next 3 years. So what did writers gain, what did studios agree to, and what does this mean for entertainment in the next 3 years? Spoiler alert: A lot of good things for everybody who isn’t a greedy billionaire. Although the exact terms of the deal have not been released yet, you can find the WGA’s most recent agreement.
To start things off, love and respect to all the writers, union or not, and allies who stood together for this strike. Due to their efforts, the Hollywood landscape has been changed to better benefit those who help get many projects started in the first place through script writing, writing rooms, and script adjustments. Also, a thank you to all those who donated to support those on strike, whether it was being involved at the picket lines or providing things like meals and water to those striking. All the hard work was well worth it. Now let’s talk about results.
One of the most significant demands the writers were fighting for was a new standard for residuals in the current streaming landscape. To give a basic explanation, residuals are a form of income for writers in which they receive payment for a TV show or movie being shown in any capacity. This was initially a way for TV writers to receive a consistent flow of income for making a show that is constantly being aired via reruns. However, with the growth of streaming platforms, many writers lost the usual residual deal and thus were not receiving much in that regard for writing shows that would perform well on Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, etc. With this new deal, writers will get more of a cut of the profits in residuals for working on programs made for and published on streaming platforms. Writers will also receive more residuals from foreign streaming results, as well as an increase in streaming residuals based on viewership. An interesting factor here is that the studios have agreed to provide streaming data to the Guild. Meaning, that writers will now know the exact metrics of which success is being measured by the studios, which is big. Now these metrics will more than likely not be shown to the public; however, these results will shape creative decisions and give insight into something that has been more or less a complete mystery for writers involved in streaming content. These changes are huge since most traditional multi-episode series are being made for and/or are being released exclusively to streaming platforms.
Aside from residuals, the WGA also fought to renegotiate work contracts for writers. A big one was a basic minimum pay increase for all levels of writers. Screenwriters have been guaranteed a “2nd step” or when they have a script that is purchased or acquired, spec scripts included, they will be paid for writing a second draft. This is important because rarely does a script make it to production without requiring a second, third, or even fourth, fifth, and so on, draft. Thus, writers have gained a guaranteed second paycheck for work they should be doing anyway. This prevents the studios the ability to buying a script from a writer, and then hiring a separate writer (for probably less pay) or using A.I. (more on that later) to make adjustments later. Along with that, the Guild also negotiated an “Accelerated payment structure for flat deals”. To put this simply, writers would usually be paid twice for a project, once in the beginning and once at the end of the writing process. This would mean a writer could go months without seeing another paycheck for a project they were actively working on. With this new deal, the Writer receives 50% of their fee at the beginning, would receive payment 9 weeks into a project (25% of the total fee), and would receive the last 25% at the delivery stage. While this isn’t a flat increase, it does all for writers to have a more consistent and reliable income base, instead of waiting potentially a year to get the second half of their pay.
Along with those aspects, the Guild also guaranteed the minimum number of writers in a writers’ room depending on episodes. So for example, if a show is slated to have 8 episodes in a season, then a minimum of 5 writers must be employed as well as 3 Writer-Producers in the same room. Included in this, these members are “guaranteed 10 consecutive weeks of employment”, which is great for working-class writers. Having guaranteed seats and guaranteed weeks of employment allows writers and writer-producers to have a more comfortable employment situation. This helps prevent the previous issue of “small rooms,” which were rooms of writers being paid less than usual to quickly write or re-write a project at a quick turnaround pace. The biggest aspect of this is that writers get to keep guaranteed staffing that their position has had for decades. Without this, there could have been the potential for writing to become a “gig-based” job, where writers would be more akin to Uber drivers than creative members of a project.
Possibly the biggest issue in the strike had to be over the use of A.I. in writing or adapting creative works. The WGA was able to negotiate that “AI can’t write or rewrite literary material, and AI-generated material will not be considered source material under the MBA, meaning that AI-generated material can’t be used to undermine a writer’s credit or separated rights.” An enormous win for writers, due to it enforcing the studios to have to hire a writer in any situation to write or adapt a project going forward. Possibly one of the first acts of this kind, this could be the start of many objections to using things like ChatGPT, to quickly pump out a season of television instead of hiring a human writing staff.
Another point of this is “A writer can choose to use AI when performing writing services if the company consents and provided that the writer follows applicable company policies, but the company can’t require the writer to use AI software (e.g., ChatGPT) when performing writing services.” To put this simply, the Guild is fine with members using AI software but is preventing the major studios from forcing writers to use it, or using it themselves as stated before. Again, another strong stance of preventing AI software from taking away jobs and creative freedom from the individual writers. Lastly, studios have to disclose to the writer if any material presented to a writer was created by AI, further giving creative control of all writing materials of a project back to the writer and not the studios.
These are the main aspects of that the WGA was able to negotiate with the major studios and to say this was a victory would be an understatement. Ever since the beginning of this strike things have looked dire. There was a real fear that writing as a career, whether it be screenwriting, TV writing, or even writing-producing, would be drastically changed if this strike was not successful. This agreement gives power back to the writers in ways that should be considered necessary to be not only successful but also profitable in terms of personal wealth for these hardworking creatives. They can continue to do their job knowing they are guaranteed pay, jobs, minimum weeks of employment, and that AI will not replace them in the production process.
How this will affect the film and TV landscape is less about how the art form will change, and more about how this art form will continue to have a feasible, financially viable working environment for writers. There will not be a huge shift in what shows and movies will look like, more so that they will be made with the intent that the people working on them will be paid appropriately for their work, will be supported in the process of creating that work, and will be paid if that work continues to be shown after it is released. We cannot stress enough how great this deal is for writers, and hopefully, this deal can be improved further when this contract ends in 3 years. Until then, good luck to all the writers out there, and here’s to hoping that SAG-AFTRA can get a deal just as, if not more beneficial, as this one.
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