[SUBSTACK ARCHIVE] #3: Check out the new Writers Guild contract!

Have you heard the news? The writers’ strike is over!

I haven’t read through the entire thing yet (you can do so here!), but after a slow skim, it looks like WGAE/WGAW got movement on a lot of major issues, including streaming residuals, staffing minimums and regulation of AI usage. The only point the studios didn’t budge on is paying weekly MBA minimums in post-production (see pg. 4). Not sure what that’s about, but if I find something out, I’ll be sure to let y’all know. It didn’t really make a blip on my radar before, but now I’m super curious! 🤔

Of course, all is not settled in Hollywood. SAG-AFTRA is still on strike, and I imagine many members of the Writers Guild will remain on the picket lines in solidarity with their SAG comrades. Hopefully, the tides turning in favor of the writers this past week will translate into some positive movement for the actors’ negotiations coming up. To the best of my knowledge, SAG-AFTRA and AMPTP reps haven’t come to the table since the strike started 2.5 months ago. I wonder if the studios are feeling more conciliatory after a summer of heavy reputational damage. I know it’s been said before, but I can’t believe they thought people would side with the David Zaslavs and Ted Sarandoses of the world when America’s most attractive grown-up theater kids were using their talents to inform the public about how the sausage gets made. They thought that one through about as thoroughly as I thought through wearing Doc Martens in a DC snowstorm1 4 years ago, which is to say not at all.

Congrats to my Writers Guild comrades! Take some time to celebrate this hard fought victory. Y’all deserve it.

I have a second post coming later this week, so keep an eye out for that.

In solidarity,

Aria