The sentiment couldn’t be more different in 2023.
In the wake of the Writers Guild of America’s surprise deal with studios and streamers announced Saturday, which arrived earlier than many expected, WGA members expressed gratitude that they weren’t about to face another direct negotiation or strike as they did just three years ago.
The 2023 writers’ strike, which had been widely supported within the union three years earlier, had cast a long shadow and many writers were not eager to face a repeat of labor action. “I think everyone feels very relieved,” showrunner David H. steinberg (No good nick) he said in an interview. “It was like suddenly a tentative agreement was reached, and all the writers I spoke to on social media were like, ‘Thank God.’”
“Obviously we are still waiting on details but anything that calms the industry is the most important thing in my book,” member Jeff Roth wrote in a letter. “The entire work needs to step back from this existential abyss that we are constantly told about, as it becomes self-fulfilling.”
The union has not yet released any detailed materials describing the proposed contract language, so opinions could change once members see the finer details. So far, the WGA has only revealed to members that the interim agreement will extend for four years instead of the union’s typical three years. The union said the agreement “protects our health plan” with higher contributions and contribution caps and “builds on gains from 2023 and helps address self-employment challenges.”
But what the WGA said was enough to get writers talking. Extending the contract length from three to four years represents a risky move for the working group given the rapid changes — consolidation, cost-cutting and use of generative artificial intelligence among them — currently sweeping Hollywood. The extended deal means the WGA may have to wait longer to make major contractual changes if issues arise in the next few years.
Most of the writers they talked to Hollywood Reporter She wasn’t bothered by the paradigm shift. “The extra year in the classroom is a bit of a bitter pill to swallow given the rapid pace of AI development, but it was a necessary – and entirely predictable – trade-off to save the health fund,” he wrote. share Showrunner Marc Guggenheim in the script. “This is where I assumed we’d end up.” Overall, he’s happy with what he knows about the deal so far.
There’s also the matter of the possibility that the WGA has just removed itself from its usual negotiating schedule. The union usually negotiates in the same year as the performers union SAG-AFTRA and the directors union Directors Guild of America. It is not clear whether these two unions will change the length of their usual three-year contracts in their own negotiations, which could upset the usual schedule. It is believed that bargaining in the same year could strengthen the three unions by allowing them to organize pressure campaigns and/or stop working.
This concern doesn’t bother Steinberg. “I understand what the problem is, and that you want to go along with other deals to apply pressure if you need to,” Steinberg says. But he notes that AMPTP was at least considering asking for a five-year contract term THR I mentioned previously. Combined with the WGA’s usual three-year term, four years “seems like a big compromise,” he adds.
The relative speed with which Saturday’s deal was struck represents another pivot for the WGA in 2026. The union has been known to use aggressive tactics such as negotiating until the last minute of a contract term and/or strike authorization votes to leverage leverage.
But the WGA did not finally publish these long-sought rules of the game. The union and studios neatly finalized their tentative deal during the three weeks that constituted the WGA’s first scheduled bargaining period. (Otherwise, the two sides almost certainly would have set additional time before May 1, when the UFW’s 2023 contract officially expires.) The union never voted to authorize the strike, even to exert pressure.
A source said the speed of negotiations raised some doubts and tension in a group chat between at least one book. Another source noted that peers appeared relaxed but largely cynical and walked away from these negotiations, compared to the high levels of engagement in 2023.
There are still many members who have spoken to them THR He argued that industry conditions in 2026 may require a new approach. Employment of writers has declined compared to the blockbuster “Peak TV” era, when streamers were more focused on attracting subscribers rather than making a profit. WGA leaders have made no secret of the dire state of their health fund, which lost a total of $122 million in fiscal years 2023 and 2024.
The WGA was led by chief negotiator Ellen Stutzman as well as negotiating committee co-chairs John Auguste and Daniel Sanchez-Witzel and union president Michelle Mulroney in talks with the studios, which were represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers led by Gregory Hessinger.
Mulroney previously said the downturn in business “put a lot of pressure on our fund because fewer clerks working meant fewer contributions coming into the plan.” THR.
In other words, in 2026, the WGA is in a very different position than it was three years ago, when its leaders felt emboldened to go on strike for 148 days in order to reshape payments in the streaming era and create rudimentary protections against generative AI. Its members, many of whom still feel fatigued from the 2023 strike, don’t seem willing — at least for now — to criticize their deal or criticize their union for not trying hard enough.
“The Writers Guild has made it clear that the priority in the negotiations is to support pension and health funds,” Steinberg says. “So mission accomplished, I guess.”
