Hollywood Strike: WGA To Meet With Streamers, Studios For Negotiations Three Months After Strikes Began
The strikes which had almost frozen the industry and brought it to a standstill is likely to ease off after a round of negotiations with big studio and streamers on August 4, 2023
New Delhi: The Hollywood strike by the WGA and SAG-AFTRA might come to an end. The strikes which had almost frozen the industry and brought it to a standstill, almost for the first time in history, is likely to ease off after a round of negotiations with big studio and streamers on August 4, 2023.
According to The Hollywood Reporter report, the WGA negotiating committee said in a statement to the members, "The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), through Carol Lombardini, reached out to the WGA and requested a meeting this Friday to discuss negotiations. We’ll be back in communication with you sometime after the meeting with further information. As we’ve said before, be wary of rumors. Whenever there is important news to share, you will hear it directly from us.”
“We remain committed to finding a path to mutually beneficial deals with both unions,” referring to both the WGA and SAG-AFTRA, which has also gone on strike. It’s the first step in what may be a long process to finally bring all concerned parties on the same page.
The meeting will be the first official contact between negotiators from the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers, representing the studios and streamers, since contract talks broke down on May 2, leading to the writers’ now nearly three-month long strike.
The topics which might be addressed at the negotiations would include minimum staffing, duration of employment, a viewership-based streaming residual and AI, Deadline reported.
Sources close to the development also told Deadline that the real work is now being done by the attorneys, part of a classic playbook of establishing harmonious labour relations.
“The AMPTP, through Carol Lombardini, reached out to the WGA today and requested a meeting this Friday to discuss negotiations,” the union stated in the message sent to members shortly before 8 p.m. PT on Tuesday evening.
“We’ll be back in communication with you sometime after the meeting with further information. As we’ve said before, be wary of rumors. Whenever there is important news to share, you will hear it directly from us.”
The AMPTP, which works on the behalf of major studios, has been having internal meetings over the last few weeks about taking a course of action with WGA.
The WGA and AMPTP are far apart on issues like TV staffing and viewership-based residuals, among other points of discussion.
Meanwhile, SAG-AFTRA, which represents some 1,60,000 performances, has been on strike since July 14, joining writers in studios to raise par and residuals for streaming content and to develop ground rules regarding the use of AI in TV and film. These simultaneous strikes by the writers and the performers union is a first since the 60s to have frozen TV and film production in the USA.
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