The ongoing negotiations between the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) and the writers guild (WGA) took yet another turn this week, with the AMPTP making a counteroffer to the striking Hollywood writers. The writers are seeking, among other things, more job security, transparency in viewership, residual pay structures for streaming platforms, and guardrails on the use of AI.
This was the AMPTP’s first counteroffer in the 116 days since the strike began, and while the WGA says “real discussions” were had regarding AI protections, the AMPTP’s proposal still failed to address many of the writers’ key concerns. The studios offered what they considered “major concessions,” such as allowing a small group of WGA staff to “study limited streaming viewership data for the next three years, so can return in 2026 to ask once again for a viewership-based residual. In the meantime, no writer can be told by the WGA about how well their project is doing, much less receive a residual based on that data.”
As the WGA negotiating committee explained to its membership in a statement, what the studios offered “is neither nothing, nor nearly enough.”
The studios see things differently. According to the WGA, the studios outright said at the end of their latest negotiation meeting that they “intended to go directly to our membership by releasing information on their…proposal to the media ‘within the next 24 hours.’”
Forget hours; the details of the counteroffer were released a mere 20 minutes after the meeting ended. Some WGA members have called this out as a union-busting tactic meant to divide the membership and make them argue among themselves about whether to accept the terms.
It seems to have had the opposite effect, if yesterday’s star-studded rally in New York City is any indication.
(WATCH) Tony Gilroy speaks to demonstrators today at the NYC screenwriters picket #WritersStrike pic.twitter.com/mvRAzoI6jA
— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) August 24, 2023
Tony Gilroy: “Studios do not know what the f*ck they are doing…they have almost nothing in common but greed.”
A group of more than 300 picketers gathered in New York City on Thursday outside of Netflix, Disney and Warner Bros. offices. Their number included the likes of Star Wars: Andor showrunner Tony Gilroy, Andor writer Beau Willimon, John Turturro, Jamie Oliver, Stephen Lang, and Corey Stoll. Both Gilroy and Willimon gave speeches, and they didn’t mince words.
“The longer this strike goes, the tougher it gets, the stronger our solidarity must be,” said Willimon. “Because we have an obligation not just to ourselves but to those who came before us and to those who come after us.”
Wllimon created House of Cards for Netflix. He also wrote the prison break episode of Andor, which includes the chill-inducing speech by Kino Loy (Andy Serkis) that there’s only “one way out.”
He recalled this moment during his speech. “And we know what the one way out is: It’s staying on these streets until we get a deal that’s fair,” he proclaimed, leading the crowd as they chanted the iconic line.
Gilroy followed up Willimon’s speech with one of his own. Gilroy is a second-generation member of the WGA; his father took part in the last joint strike between writers and actors back in the 1960s.
“The Writers Guild and SAG linked arms, and they held on long enough to solidify our relationship with residuals, health care and a pension plan,” Gilroy said. “It almost fell apart at the end. Marriages fell apart. Friendships were broken forever. People really did lose their houses. And that sacrifice was to win all this shit that we take for granted.”
Gilroy emphasized how the writers guild is “is older and wiser in many ways” than it was during the 1960s strike, but also “younger and more passionate and it’s more connected and it’s faster on its feet.”
"If we’ve learned anything in the last 15 years, it is our value. We are the content. It is our ideas. It’s our ideas that fill the theme parks and the toy stores. It’s our characters on the lunchboxes and the Halloween costumes. … We are the natural resource from which the product is made, and we are tired of being strip-mined."
Gilroy had scathing words for the studios:
"We have one problem, and that’s that the AMPTP does not have their shit together. They do not know what the f*ck they are doing. We are facing across the table now a group of people who have never done this before. They’re doing this for the first time, and they have almost nothing in common but greed.They hate each other, but they’ve got to come together and do this."
Gilroy finished by urging picketers to remain strong and united as the strike continues. “The negotiators on our side need to know that our resolve is there,” he said, before echoing Willimon with another round of “One way out.”
The WGA is in its 17th week on strike. SAG-AFTRA, the actors guild, is in its 8th.
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