The Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike has officially been called off, almost six months after the industrial action first began. Writers will begin returning to work from Wednesday, Sept. 27 at 12:01am PT / 3:01am ET, when the strike finally ended.
The WGA initially announced a tentative new agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) on Sunday, stating that its Negotiating Committee, the WGAW Board, and the WGAE Council would put it to a vote. The results are now in, with all three bodies unanimously voting to recommend the “exceptional” deal to the WGA’s members on Tuesday.
They also voted to end the historic WGA strike, ending it after 148 days.
This is undoubtedly excellent news for writers, but the matter isn’t entirely closed just yet. The new deal will now be sent to the WGA’s members for their approval, with a ratification vote scheduled to take place from Oct. 2 to 9.
Still, it’s unlikely they’ll reject the hard-won deal, especially considering the Negotiating Committee’s clear elation at its terms.
“These are essential protections that the companies told us, to our faces, that they would NEVER give us,” Negotiating Committee member Adam Conover wrote on his Twitter/X account. “But because of our solidarity, because they literally cannot make a dollar without us, they bent, then broke, and gave us what we deserve. WE WON.”
The WGA also released the full 94-page agreement on Tuesday, which members immediately began poring over and celebrating. According to the WGA, the new deal has an estimated value of $233 million per year. It isn’t quite the $429 million per year the WGA had been demanding. But it’s almost triple the $86 million per year the AMPTP had tried to make it settle for.
The SAG-AFTRA strike is ongoing.
