Writers Strike Ends as New Deal Is Ratified

After nearly 150 days, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) will end its strike at 12:01 a.m. PT on Wednesday.

The WGA announced the conclusion of the strike after their negotiating committee, WGAW Board and WGAE Council all unanimously voted Tuesday to recommend a tentative three-year minimum basic agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).

"This allows writers to return to work during the ratification process, but does not affect the membership’s right to make a final determination on contract approval," the statement read.

Eligible members of both unions will be able to vote on whether or not to ratify the agreement from Oct. 2-9. Meanwhile, the WGA has made the details of the agreement public, as well as the progress of the negotiations since the strike was first called on May 1.

After their weekend-long negotiations with the AMPTP — the union representing major Hollywood streamers and studios — the WGA announced a tentative agreement on Sunday.

"We can say, with great pride, that this deal is exceptional – with meaningful gains and protections for writers in every sector of the membership," the WGA shared in a statement at the time.

Those meetings followed several rounds of negotiations and at least one rejected counterproposal that the AMPTP released publicly. While the AMPTP has its own negotiating team, the final meetings were also attended by CEOs, including Disney's Bob Iger, Netflix's Ted Sarandos, NBCUniversal's Donna Langley and Warner Bros Discovery's David Zaslav.

After a previous meeting, the WGA shared a statement detailing that the AMPTP was "willing to increase their offer on a few writer-specific TV minimums — and willing to talk about AI — but that they were not willing to engage on the preservation of the writers' room or success-based residuals."

Meanwhile, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) has been on strike since July 14, but talks between with the studios are expected to resume soon. It is the first double strike for both Hollywood unions since 1960 when Ronald Reagan was president of SAG.

The Directors Guild of America (DGA) reached a deal with the AMPTP in early June, which has since been ratified.