WGA Says Studios Are Ready to Negotiate a Real Agreement

Throughout the Hollywood strikes happening this summer, the WGA has been frank in giving updates on its attempted negotiations with studios and the AMPTP. Said talks haven’t really gone well on account of the AMPTP reportedly not operating in good faith or only wanting to meet some (but not all) of the WGA’s demands. But as the writers strike hits its fourth month, it appears that studios have hit the point where they’re taking the union seriously.

On Friday, the WGA sent an update out to its members claiming its negotiating committee has spoken with individual (and unnamed) studio executives. Said executives are reportedly open to agreements addressing the WGA’s issues, with one executive allegedly acknowledging “they must give more than usual to settle this negotiation,” and it’s said another executive confessing to “[needing] a deal badly. […] On every single issue we are asking for we have had at least one legacy studio executive tell us they could accommodate us.”

That studios are finally ready to truly talk isn’t that surprising to hear. On both sides of things, the strikes are hitting hard; studios have tried to fight the strike by putting their streaming shows on cable and physical media, but Warner Bros. admitted earlier this week the strikes would cost it $300-$500 million for the year. Not to mention, several WGA members have been more candid than usual about the economic strain studios have caused them by refusing to agree to a deal. In its letter, the WGA pointed out that it would be totally open to establishing deals without the AMPTP’s involvement, as it successfully did with A24 and Neon early on.

But the WGA was adamant in saying that should studios want individual deals, it’ll fall on employees within said companies to make it happen. It knows its members are feeling the pain, but at the end of the day, companies like WB and Disney have to be willing to eat more crow than they expected. “They must negotiate if they want to end the strike,” wrote the WGA. “They may not like it – they may try to obscure it – but they know it. […] Companies inside the AMPTP who want a fair deal with writers must take control of the AMPTP process itself, or decide to make a deal separately. At that point, a resolution to the strike will be in reach.”

[via Deadline]

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