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WGA

When the meeting arrived, WGA chief negotiator Ellen Stutzman and general counsel Tony Segall told Lombardini there would be no further negotiations unless the companies were willing to engage with all of the guild’s demands

The Writers Will Script This Strike Ending

With the AMPTP chief reluctant and the Writers Guild recalcitrant, Friday’s meeting was doomed from the start. A historical look at why Hollywood union bargaining is so difficult.
Jonathan Handel • August 7, 2023
Matthew Belloni • August 4, 2023
The Studios-Streamers Coalition of the Willing
Why the AMPTP finally agreed to sit down with the Writers Guild and how there’s reason to be cautiously optimistic for Hollywood’s labor breakthrough of the summer.
Baratunde Thurston • July 25, 2023
A.I.: A Hollywood Odyssey
The threat A.I. poses to the livelihoods of Hollywood’s writers goes beyond the mere existential threat of being replaced by auto-generated text.
There are ways that these tools can enhance storytelling, support labor, and improve the industry. But that has to be determined in collaboration—not by a handful of big tech companies dropping random, unvetted digital tools on an industry. Not again.
DGA Negotiations chair Jon Avnet.
Jonathan Handel • June 12, 2023
Did the Directors Really Sabotage Their Sisters?
A close look at the DGA’s proposed pact with the studios and streamers suggests a way forward, despite grumbling that leadership abandoned its fellow guilds.
Is the deal as “truly historic” as DGA negotiations committee chair Jon Avnet claims?
Jonathan Handel • June 5, 2023
Strike Politics: What the Directors Deal Means for Writers and Actors
The devil’s in the details as the DGA makes a quick (and probably not “historic”) three-year contract, the actors weigh a walkout and the writers strike presses on.
WGA negotiating committee co-chair David Goodman.
Matthew Belloni • May 30, 2023
Must the Writers Strike Last Six Months? 
No, says negotiating committee co-chair David Goodman, who offers a path to resolution, responds to the Max credit debacle, and defends the guild’s hardliner tactics: “These companies are hurting.”
Chris Keyser, co-chair of the WGA’s negotiating committee.
Matthew Belloni • May 26, 2023
Hollywood’s Writers-Strike Force Majeure Fantasy
The longer the work stoppage goes on, the more fears spread about studios cutting unproductive writer-producer deals, wiping the fiscal slate clean, and ushering in a new era of austerity. But how much of that will actually happen?
2015 Ted Sarandos would have cringed at the sight of 2023 Sarandos suggesting from the stage that Netflix host “a 30 minute commercial” that “plays out over several days.”
Matthew Belloni • May 19, 2023
The TV Upfronts B.S. Barometer
An honest assessment of the P.R. spin, wishful thinking and outright obfuscation in a slimmed-down, mostly star-free ad pitch week.
The Directors Guild of America negotiating committee chair, Jon Avnet.
Jonathan Handel • May 15, 2023
What a Directors Guild Deal Might Look Like
A crystal ball into the posturing, pressure points and players in a potential pact that could also set the table for a WGA deal—and maybe end the strike.
The issues at the heart of this seemingly long-term labor fight will only get more pronounced as it drags on.
Matthew Belloni • May 12, 2023
Can the Striking Writers Avoid Class Warfare? 
The class divide between the haves and have-nots of Hollywood writers has not yet been an issue in this labor stand-off. But, if history—and past comments by Todd Phillips and Aaron Sorkin—is a guide, it likely will soon enough.