Writer’s Guild Respond To Studios Counter Offer
Last night, the Writer’s Guild Of America met with the leaders of the AMPTP, along with Disney CEO Bob Iger, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav and Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, to discuss the ongoing writer’s strike, which began in May and has caused a shutdown of productions across the world including on many Disney+ Originals.
Following the meeting, the Studios released a full statement with their counter-proposal to the Writer’s Guild, which showed improvements to pay, protection from AI and better working conditions.
However, there is supposed to be a media blackout from both sides about the negotiations, resulting in the WGA releasing its own statement about the offer and the meeting:
Dear Members,
After 102 days of being on strike and of AMPTP silence, the companies began to bargain with us on August 11th, presenting us for the first time with a counteroffer.
We responded to their counter at the beginning of last week and engaged in further discussions throughout the week.
On Monday of this week, we received an invitation to meet with Bob Iger, Donna Langley, Ted Sarandos, David Zaslav and Carol Lombardini. It was accompanied by a message that it was past time to end this strike and that the companies were finally ready to bargain for a deal.
We accepted that invitation and, in good faith, met tonight, in hopes that the companies were serious about getting the industry back to work.
Instead, on the 113th day of the strike – and while SAG-AFTRA is walking the picket lines by our side – we were met with a lecture about how good their single and only counteroffer was.
We explained all the ways in which their counter’s limitations and loopholes and omissions failed to sufficiently protect writers from the existential threats that caused us to strike in the first place. We told them that a strike has a price, and that price is an answer to all – and not just some – of the problems they have created in the business.
But this wasn’t a meeting to make a deal. This was a meeting to get us to cave, which is why, not twenty minutes after we left the meeting, the AMPTP released its summary of their proposals.
This was the companies’ plan from the beginning – not to bargain, but to jam us. It is their only strategy – to bet that we will turn on each other.
Tomorrow we will send a more detailed description of the state of the negotiations. And we will see you all out on the picket lines and let the companies continue to see what labor power looks like.
In solidarity,
WGA Negotiating Committee
The studios released the information of the counteroffer to the public in order to try to swing the audience onto their side, to show that they are offering better pay etc. However, the WGA continue to feel that they aren’t being listened to and want the studios to come back with another counteroffer. No doubt, the public opinion on this situation will vary wildly and both sides are trying to sway public opinion. Hopefully, the two sides continue to come together to reach a compromise and end the strike soon.
Roger Palmer
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