Now the guild must finalize the contract and sell the deal to its members.
It took 146 days and multiple marathon negotiating sessions attended by CEOs including Bob Iger and David Zaslav, but the Hollywood writers strike appears poised to end. On Sunday night, the Writers Guild of America said it had reached a tentative deal for a new contract, signaling that writers could soon pack up their picket signs and return to work after a nearly five-month walkout.
In an email to members, the WGA negotiating committee said they are still working to draft final contract language and that they would send more details soon. “We can say, with great pride, that this deal is exceptional—with meaningful gains and protections for writers in every sector of the membership,” it reads. Once the contract is finalized, the negotiating committee will vote on whether to send it on to WGA leadership for approval. Then the guild’s more than 11,000 members will be asked to vote to ratify the deal.
I guess I trust the leadership when they say the deal is exceptional but I kind of want to withhold judgement until we see any of the details.
Yeah. It is a good sign that the producers seemed willing to come to the table when the previous strategy was to starve them out. It probably didn’t help that independent production companies could work and didn’t seem to find the restrictions that onerous.
We don’t have a deal until the vote happens.
Getting to a vote is progress.
