This past Friday, the Writer’s Guild Of America met with the AMPTP (The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, aka the Studios including Disney), to discuss the ongoing writer’s strike, which started back in May.

After three months of no talks, last week, the two parties came together to start putting together a plan to resume talks and a week later, the first full meeting took place.  Unfortunately, due to a media blackout, no details have been revealed about what was discussed in Friday’s meeting, but we do know from a statement from the WGA, that a counterproposal has been made, and there will be another meeting next week.

Here’s the official statement from the Writer’s Guild Of America:

Dear Members,

Your Negotiating Committee received a counterproposal from the AMPTP today. We will evaluate their offer and, after deliberation, go back to them with the WGA’s response next week.

Sometimes more progress can be made in negotiations when they are conducted without a blow-by-blow description of the moves on each side and a subsequent public dissection of the meaning of the moves. That will be our approach, at least for the time being, until there is something of significance to report, or unless management uses the media or industry surrogates to try to influence the narrative.

The Guild always has the right to communicate with our members and will do so when we think there is news you need to know.

In the meantime, please continue to demonstrate your commitment by showing up to the picket lines: for yourselves, your fellow writers, SAG-AFTRA, fellow union members, and all those in our community who are impacted by the strikes.

In solidarity,

WGA Negotiating Committee

There are many key issues that the studios and union need to reach an agreement on, including better working conditions, better pay, better residual repayments, minimum staffing, protection against artificial intelligence and guaranteed days of employment.

Hopefully, with the union and the studios now engaged in actual negotiations, this situation will be resolved soon, but as with any strike, they take time, especially with regard to dealing with more tricky aspects like residual payments.  But having them talking to one another is the only way this will end, and work can resume on creating the films and shows we all want to watch in the future.

Roger Palmer

Roger has been a Disney fan since he was a kid and this interest has grown over the years. He has visited Disney Parks around the globe and has a vast collection of Disney movies and collectibles. He is the owner of What's On Disney Plus & DisKingdom. Email: Roger@WhatsOnDisneyPlus.com Twitter: Twitter.com/RogPalmerUK Facebook: Facebook.com/rogpalmeruk

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