After 146 long days of stoppage, the writer’s strike is finally over! While Hollywood elites such as Disney CEO Bob Eiger said the writers’ demands were “not realistic,” it seems that overall the Writers Guild of America (WGA) largely got what they wanted. The simplified memorandum of the agreement (MOA) covered all of the major demands for the writers: higher minimum pay, increased streaming residuals, and restrictions against the use of AI were all assured. Most minimum wage for writers increased by 5% as soon as the deal was signed with clauses that will further increase the writer’s minimum wage by 4% on 5/2/24 and 3.5% on 5/2/25. In terms of streaming, the deal has ordered streaming companies such as Netflix and MAX to be more transparent with their streaming numbers, now being required to provide the guild with the total number of hours a show is streamed for, and writers to get paid bonuses for highly successful shows. Finally, for AI, writers and productions can still use AI, but AI software can now not be used to reduce or eliminate writers and their pay. “A writer can choose to use AI when performing writing services if the company consents and provided that the writer follows applicable company policies, but the company can’t require the writer to use AI software (e.g., ChatGPT) when performing writing services,” the MOA states. Member of the WGA Elise Brown said in an interview with NPR, “I think [the deal] is something that’s going to affect all of us. I think that [it’s important to] even just having the ability to have conversations about protecting our work from being used to train AI, about being in control of whether or not AI material is considered intellectual property”. With victory finally seized after a grueling 146 days the question is still left open, what’s next for Hollywood writers?
Sources:
https://www.vox.com/culture/2023/9/24/23888673/wga-strike-end-sag-aftra-contract
