WGA Strike To End On Wednesday, With Writers Authorized To Return To Work
The Hollywood writers strike will officially conclude at 12:01 am PT on Wednesday, with WGA leadership voting to end the strike and send its members back to work, the guild announced to its members on Tuesday.
The full guild still needs to vote to approve the contract agreed to with the AMPTP, with the vote set for Oct. 2-9, but in the meantime, TV writers' rooms can reconvene, and writers can resume "pitching, selling scripts, taking meetings" and "responding to notes," per The Hollywood Reporter — tasks that were forbidden during the strike.
"This allows writers to return to work during the ratification process, but does not affect the membership's right to make a final determination on contract approval," the guild said in its statement to members.
The WGA and the AMPTP reached a tentative deal on a new contract on Sunday, signaling an end to the months-long strike that began back in May.
"We have reached a tentative agreement on a new 2023 MBA, which is to say an agreement in principle on all deal points, subject to drafting final contract language," the WGA posted in a message to its members late Sunday. "We can say, with great pride, that this deal is exceptional," the statement added, "with meaningful gains and protections for writers in every sector of the membership." (The WGA released the details of the new tentative agreement on Tuesday as well.)
The WGA, which represents Hollywood movie and TV writers, went on strike seeking better residuals from streaming shows, minimum staff sizes to prevent the use of "mini rooms" and protections against the use of AI, among other demands. The actors guild SAG-AFTRA is also currently on strike and have been since July, citing many of the same demands as the WGA. (There's no word yet on when negotiations might resume between SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP.) The dual strikes have brought the TV world to a virtual standstill, with no shows being written or filmed and the networks' fall TV lineups being decimated as a result.