The Hollywood writers’ strike is still going strong after 113 days, despite an offer of what the studios called a “comprehensive package.”
Earlier this week, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) told the negotiating committee of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) that it was willing to meet to help resolve the issues, but the effort ultimately backfired.
As the WGA’s committee put it: “On Monday of this week, we received an invitation to meet with Bob Iger, Donna Langley, Ted Sarandos, David Zaslav and Carol Lombardini. It was accompanied by a message that it was past time to end this strike and that the companies were finally ready to bargain a deal.
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We accepted that invitation and, in good faith, met tonight, in hopes that the companies were serious about getting the industry back to work.”
However, the WGA quickly turned down the proposal. It issued a strongly worded statement that read in part: “Instead, on the 113th day of the strike – and while SAG-AFTRA is walking the picket lines by our side – we were met with a lecture about how good their single and only counteroffer was. But this wasn’t a meeting to make a deal. This was a meeting to get us to cave, which is why, not 20 minutes after we left the meeting, the AMPTP released its summary of their proposals.”
The WGA denounced the studios for publicly disclosing their offer, declaring “This was the companies’ plan from the beginning – not to bargain, but to jam us. It is their only strategy – to bet that we will turn on each other.
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The latest counteroffer from the studios came with what the AMPTP called the highest wage increase in 33 years: “a compounded 13% increase over the three-year contract, with an increase of 5% in year one; 4% in year two; and 3.5% in year three.”
The AMPTP proposal also raised the amount of residuals and offered protections designed to mitigate the impact of artificial intelligence on writers’ fees. In a statement defending these offers, AMPTP president Carol Lombardini declared: “Our priority is to end the strike so that valued members of the creative community can return to what they do best and to end the hardships that so many people and businesses that service the industry are experiencing, We have come to the table with an offer that meets the priority concerns the writers have expressed. We are deeply committed to ending the strike and are hopeful that the WGA will work toward the same resolution.”
Given the events of this week, it appears unlikely that the impasse will be resolved soon.
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