The Writers Guild Staff Union has reached a tentative agreement with the Writers Guild of America West that will go to its members for ratification, bringing a potential end to the strike that has kept the WGA’s Fairfax headquarters closed for the past 79 days.
“After nearly three months of strength, unity, and resolve, WGSU members were able to secure seniority provisions in layoffs and a no-strike clause that both parties agree protects concerted activity,” the union represented by the Pacific Northwest Staff Union said in a statement.
Among the key gains the union listed in the contract include:
- Seniority provisions in layoff procedures that prioritize institutional knowledge and dedication to Writers Guild members.
- Minimum 12 percent increases for all Writers Guild staff over the course of the three-year term, including eight percent increases for all in the 2026 calendar year.
- Raising the salary floor from $43,000 to $57,000 retroactive to August 11, 2025, significantly improving take home pay for our lowest paid members.
- Longevity increases retroactive to January 1, 2026 for any WGSU member who has been in the same position or grade for five, ten, and fifteen years.
- Conversion to a wage scale modeled after the wage scale won by staff union siblings employed by WGA East.
- Just cause provisions with progressive discipline and a stepped grievance process.
- The creation of a Labor-Management Committee to establish healthy worksite communication between staff and Guild leadership.
- Protection of bargaining unit positions from replacement by AI, temporary employees, and/or contractors.
“A ratification vote will be held in the coming days. The Bargaining Committee is enthusiastically recommending our members vote yes. Once ratified, the WGSU strike will end and Writers Guild staff will return to doing what we do best: defending the writers’ hard-fought gains and helping them build collective power,” said the committee.
The WGSU went on strike on February 17 after months of on-and-off talks failed to produce a deal, with the staff union filing unfair labor practice charges against WGA West accusing them of retaliatory firings during the talks. The strikes led to the indefinite closure of the WGAW headquarters and the cancellation of the Writers Guild Awards ceremony in Los Angeles, though the WGA East still held its own ceremony in New York.
The strike then continued into the WGA’s three weeks of contract negotiations with Hollywood studios and their labor rep, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), as WGSU moved their picket lines outside the negotiations at SAG-AFTRA Plaza on the Miracle Mile.
In recent weeks, WGAW has fired its own accusations at WGSU, claiming that members of the union shoved and harassed the guild’s outside counsel as they arrived for the AMPTP negotiations. Union members also staged protests outside the home of WGA West executive director Ellen Stutzman, which the guild called “absolutely unacceptable” in a memo to members.
WGAW stated on April 28 that the two sides had reached an impasse, rejecting requests by the WGSU to bring in an arbiter and declaring that its offer made on April 8, was final. Still, the deal reached on Friday, made after several further days of talks, included some modifications including on seniority provisions for layoffs.
When reached for comment, WGA West provided a one sentence statement: “We are pleased to have reached a tentative agreement with the PNWSU/WGSU for its first collective bargaining agreement.”
