STUTZMAN: The leadership knows they made a good deal, so members should go back to work. How important was that to you guys to have writers back at work ASAP, and does that take away some leverage for SAG-AFTRA when its negotiations start in the next week or so? That means writers will be getting back to work as the ratification vote is set up and conducted from October 2-9. SAG-AFTRA but also IATSE, the Teamsters, all of them - we have to make sure they get back on their feet, and we’ll be there for them when they negotiate a good contract next year.ĭEADLINE: With today’s vote by the WGAW board and the WGAE council to send the tentative agreement to the members for ratification, we’ve also seen the announcement that the strike will end at 12:01 a.m. You know, finding ways to support writers who are still hurting, everyone below the line who is hurting and everyone else in this business directly and indirectly who sacrificed right alongside writers. And for all those hurt by this, I know what writers intend to do, and will keep doing, as the business gets back on its feet is keep raising money. And as Meredith said, it did last for far too long. I think everyone who’s gone through this recognizes that solidarity and resolve made this possible. STUTZMAN: I would just say member power is what brought this deal in. So much was wasted and lost by just not acting earlier. I feel sad and pained that it took this long because when we got serious, we got it done in a reasonable amount of time. This strike was way too long, because the companies took so long to get serious. STIEHM: Well, of course we didn’t know how long it would take, and people certainly suffered - and not just writers but anyone who works in this industry. How was that to be right in the thick of? We knew how we were going to get there was union solidarity and being on strike - strikes work.ĭEADLINE: Yet, in that context, the days turned into weeks and then months and people were hurting, which the studios certainly thought could shatter your solidarity. I saw it as a steady climb, because we very much knew what we needed. STIEHM: I didn’t see it as a roller coaster. MEREDITH STIEHM: I’m proud of us, and I’m really proud of the membership.ĭEADLINE: But it was a bit of a roller coaster too… It really was helpful in getting the deal, and now we’ve got to help them get what they need I think what we’ve seen over the almost five-month period is that writers are more than willing to stay out and hold out to get what they needed.Īlso, to be very honest, SAG-AFTRA joining us and their members, you know, having the many of same issues that our members have and being willing to go on strike to deal with the changes in their profession was a big boost. In that pledge to the power of solidarity, the WGA West chief negotiator and the recently re-elected WGA West president also reveal how broken the AMPTP was and stuck in an old mode that was out of touch with the realities of 2023.ĭEADLINE: It’s going to the members for ratification, which seems like a done deal, no pun intended – but is this the deal you thought when the strike started you were going to get?ĮLLEN STUTZMAN: This is the deal writers needed to get. Today the WGA West board and the WGA East council voted to send the wide-ranging agreement to the members for ratification starting October 2.īarely out of the negotiating room this weekend, Stutzman and Stiehm told me about how they and the CEOs got to this “transformative” deal and how the WGA still has SAG-AFTRA’s back as that union awaits the start of new talks with the studios and streamers. After five tense days of direct talks, they announced a tentative deal on September 24. On September 14, the WGA and AMPTP at last agreed to resume bargaining - with Netflix’s Ted Sarandos, Disney’s Bob Iger, NBCUniversal’s Donna Langley and Warner Bros Discovery’s David Zaslav in the room this time. Then, after the studios and streamers mounted a failed campaign to go around guild leadership, came some welcome news. When they finally did sit down at the table on August 4, the rival sides couldn’t even agree to resume negotiations. Since then, there had been a steady stream of rhetoric, picketing and finger-pointing as the studios and steamers wouldn’t even agree to meet with the WGA for nearly three months. Studios and streamers on both coasts were picketed for more than two months before SAG-AFTRA moved to join writers on the lines. It’s been a wild half-year or so in Hollywood and the showbiz world, beginning with saber-rattling about a WGA strike and then the writers going on strike May 2. “I would just say member power is what brought this deal in,” Stutzman said of the writers who held out as times got tougher - and the actors who joined them when 160,000-strong SAG-AFTRA went out on strike in mid-July for their first joint strike since 1960.
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