As the Writers Guild of America began talks on a new studio contract, the Writers Guild Staff Union (WGSU) entered its fifth week on strike, staging a picket line in front of the SAG-AFTRA headquarters on Los Angeles’ Miracle Mile, where the WGA is meeting with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.
One hundred fifteen staffers for the Writers Guild of America West went on strike Feb. 17 after six months of on-and-off negotiations with union leadership failed to produce a contract. Last week, WGA West presented a new counter-proposal to WGSU totaling $800,000 in additional wages for the first year of the contract, but the WGSU rejected it.
“While the staff union has threatened to picket WGA members involved in negotiating the MBA, your 2026 Negotiating Committee, chief negotiator and executive staff (who are not in the bargaining unit and not on strike) will carry out the key obligation to bargain the best contract possible for writers,” WGAW executive director Ellen Stutzman said in a memo to guild members on Friday.
In its own statement, WGSU said that there was some progress made in talks last week but noted that WGAW was still not budging on key staffer issues.
“Wednesday evening, management agreed to meet with us, but once again without Ellen,” the WGSU posted on Instagram Friday. “There, the parties began making genuine progress. However, the following morning, management once again called the WGSU issuing an ultimatum requiring us to drop core union issues such as seniority and job protections. We are disheartened that management continues to keep us on strike through its bad-faith tactics.”
As the WGSU strike has continued, WGA West cancelled its annual awards ceremony that was set to be held at the JW Marriott Hotel on March 8. The WGA East, whose staffers are under a separate union contract and are not on strike, continued with their own ceremony in New York.
The WGA will start lengthy talks with the AMPTP over their collective bargaining agreement this week, ahead of a May 1 expiration date for the existing contract, which was agreed upon after a 148-day strike in 2023. The solvency of the guild’s health plan—strained by rising costs and declining contributions amid industry-wide cutbacks in production greenlights and writer hirings—is expected to be a core issue of this year’s talks, along with discussions on artificial intelligence protections and minimum staffing requirements.
