The striking Writers Guild of America said its negotiating committee met with top media company executives including The Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Iger, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav and Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos Tuesday. It didn’t go well.
“We were met with a lecture about how good their single and only counteroffer was,” the union negotiating team told members in an email.
“This wasn’t a meeting to make a deal,“ the negotiators said. “This was a meeting to get us to cave, which is why, not 20 minutes after we left the meeting, the AMPTP released its summary of their proposals.”
After the meeting, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), representing the studios, networks and streaming services, released its proposal, going directly to the union’s members.
“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," the union committee said. “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 so that the companies continue to see what labor power looks like.”
The AMPTP said the proposal it sent to the WGA on August 11 was “a comprehensive package which addresses all of the issues the Guild has identified as its highest priorities.”
According to the studios, the proposal calls for a 13% increase in wages over three years, plus an increase in residual payments for high-budget SVOD programs.
The proposal called for a minimum of 10 weeks of employment for writers in program development rooms, protections for writers surrounding the use of generative artificial intelligence and a pledge to share confidential viewership data with the WGA.
“The AMPTP member companies are committed to reaching an equitable agreement to return the industry to what it does best: creating the TV shows and movies that inspire and entertain audiences worldwide,” the group said in its statement.
