Writers Guild strike update. 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.
August 23, 2023
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
WGA NEGOTIATING COMMITTEE
David A. Goodman, Co-Chair
Chris Keyser, Co-Chair
Ellen Stutzman, Chief Negotiator
John August
Angelina Burnett
Kay Cannon
Yahlin Chang
Robb Chavis
Adam Conover
Travis Donnelly
Ashley Gable
Hallie Haglund
Eric Haywood
Eric Heisserer
Greg Iwinski
Luvh Rakhe
Erica Saleh
Danielle Sanchez-Witzel
James Schamus
Tom Schulman
Mike Schur
David Shore
David Simon
Patric M. Verrone
Nicole Yorkin
Ex-Officio
Michael Winship, WGAE President
Lisa Takeuchi Cullen, WGAE Vice President of Film/TV/Streaming
Christopher Kyle, WGAE Secretary-Treasurer
Meredith Stiehm, WGAW President
Michele Mulroney, WGAW Vice President
Betsy Thomas, WGAW Secretary-Treasurer