After striking for nearly five months, the Hollywood writers’ strike is now over, with the guild members reaching a contract with the studios, late on Tuesday, thus paving way for the industry to get back into production after the halt.
The governing boards of the eastern and western branches of the Writers Guild of America and their joint negotiating committee all voted to accept the deal, two days after the tentative agreement was reached with a coalition of Hollywood's biggest studios, streaming services and production companies.
With the strike coming to an end, writers are now free to work on the scripts from Wednesday. With late-night talks shows the ones to first to be cut off since May 2, it is likely that they will be the first ones to resume working, followed by scripted shows that will demand more time with the actors’ strike still going on.
While the writers still have to vote to ratify the contract themselves in early October, but with the strike called off, it will permit them to work. Although the members are yet to be revealed about the details of the deal, the leaders have called it “exceptional”. The three-year agreement includes wins in topics including, compensation, length of employment, size of staffs and control of artificial intelligence.
The writers had demanded for increase in pay and future residual earnings from shows of between 5% and 6%. The studios had wanted between 2% and 4%. The compromise deal was a raise of between 3.5% and 5%. The writers also got the requirement of wanting at least six staff writers for shows with atleast 13 episodes.
On artificial intelligence, the writers were given the surety that AI-generated storylines will not be regarded as “literary material”, thus avoiding competition with computers for credits. While companies cannot ask a writer to use AI, writers have the right to use them if the company agrees.
