The Writers Guild of America has reached a preliminary agreement with major studios and streamers on a new four-year contract, avoiding a prolonged labor fight that tanked the industry in 2023 after three weeks of negotiations, TheWrap has learned.
The deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers includes a multimillion-dollar contribution to strengthen the union’s health plan, a key issue in negotiations. The agreement heads to the union’s governing bodies for review and members for approval.
No official announcement was made Saturday, but a person with knowledge of the talks said one was forthcoming as soon as the details were nailed down.
Talks between the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers began in mid-March and moved more quickly than expected. The AMPTP, now led by Greg Hessinger, had sought longer-term labor stability in its negotiations with the WGA, SAG-AFTRA and the Directors Guild of America; the four-year deal is longer than the typical three-year agreement.
The deal also includes pension increases, higher compensation for streaming-only productions and protections for AI training. The deal points hit all areas the WGA said were priorities before negotiations began.
The WGA’s health fund took a major hit in the past few years, with a combined $122 million in losses in 2023 and 2024 due to rising costs and reduced work that was a downstream effect of the writers’ strike – the last time writers and studios came to the table.
Once the announcement is made, the tentative bargaining agreement will be sent to WGA’s national board for an approval vote before it is publicly released for members to vote on for ratification.
But this contract cycle will bring a twist to the ratification process for WGA West, as the staffers who organize town hall meetings for members to ask questions about the contract and oversee communications between members and leadership have been on strike since mid-February. 115 members of the Writers Guild Staff Union have staged picket lines outside the WGA West headquarters and outside the SAG-AFTRA headquarters, where the WGA and AMPTP have been negotiating over the past three weeks.
Jeremy Fuster contributed reporting to this story.
