Ya beat me to posting about the end of the strike, but here’s the Variety article on it:
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I just want to point out, it’s a tentative agreement and WGA picketing is on hold. A lot of the reporting implies everything is done. It’s great news and I’m optimistic, but the specifics need to be drafted and voted on before anyone returns to work. I’ve seen encouragement for WGA to join the SAG-AFTRA picket lines this week.
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Good important point. It’s a tentative agreement. But it’s saying something that we’ve gone from the studios digging their heels in so hard to something worth voting on.
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More reporting on a tentative deal…
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The WGA stuck to and achieved its demands for better residuals, especially for shows on streaming services. They also demanded and received more health care contributions while achieving minimum staffing requirements for episodic TV shows.
The union reportedly also broke through on the question of the use of artificial intelligence (A.I.) that could encroach upon writers’ credits and compensation, something that has held up finalization of the deal for several days. In the end, the protections around A.I. only comprise two paragraphs out of a massive contract, but they are a significant two sections. It may take some time for legal and tech experts to measure the impact of those new terms.
For the studios, there was no victory lap. The executives now recognize that their earlier refusal to negotiate with the WGA, particularly around the sensitive issue of A.I., was a mistake.
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^continued from this tweet
• The WGA can challenge AI’s use of writers’ content based on the agreement or law.
^continued from this same tweet
• Series Employment: Weekly pay hike & staffing provisions.
• Options, Exclusivity, Span: Enhanced protections.
• Showrunner Training: $250k/year.
Wow, all completely reasonable things the WGA asked for and won that actually contributes to a healthy and thriving entertainment business for everyone including the CEOs and shareholders. It certainly made the Hollywood executives who fought against these things for months look like complete knobs.
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Only because they are complete knobs.
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Oh, they wanted the public to know this. Maybe they thought it would be easier to turn the public against the actors than the writers (which I had guess that’s why they settled with them first).
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A number of the services are raising their prices very soon, although not with the same vindictive timing as Netflix’s. I’d love to see a mass cancellation of subscriptions from consumers to reflect our collective displeasure. That would be hard to organize since consumers aren’t a union.
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Hey, look at what happens when you disrespect your writers.
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So, what now? While writers are back to work, members of SAG-AFTRA are still on the picket lines.
Huh. I thought I saw somewhere that the writers will continue a work stoppage in support of SAG-AFTRA.
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The strike is apparently over now. SAG-AFTRA is apparently happy. I just haven’t come across anything explaining in detail how much they got out of what they were asking for. I’m just happy to see that no matter how long it took, striking works. We need to see this across more industries.
I heard Fran Drescher on NPR today… one thing is that they’re setting up a fund for sharing the wealth on streaming… once a show tops 20% (meaning of the number of people who are subscribed to a streamer), they get a pay out that goes into the fund, and will pay both the people in the show, and those in streaming shows whose shows don’t get to that threshhold (or so it seems)… otherwise, it’s been pretty vague…
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… especially when TPTB would have needed those striking workers to produce any mass-market anti-union propaganda 
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