The historic Writers Guild of America (WGA) strike of 2023 is officially drawing to a close tonight.
Per The Hollywood Reporter, the WGA strike will end on Wednesday, September 27 at 12:01 a.m. PT. On September 24, the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) reached a tentative agreement after months of the former being on strike. In light of this, the WGA’s leadership has now voted to authorize roughly 11,500 of its members to return to work starting tomorrow.
Thanks to the vote, writers’ rooms will be able to reconvene. Additionally, things like pitching, selling scripts, taking meetings, and responding to notes will now be fair game after over 140 days of being off-limits due to the strike. “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 WGA negotiating committee said in a statement.
On that note, while the strike ends at 12:01 tonight, the WGA does still need to ratify the new deal. A referendum on the matter will take place between Monday, October 2 and Monday, October 9.
The WGA reached a deal – but SAG-AFTRA is still on strike
The 2023 WGA strike began on May 2 after contract negotiations between the writers’ union and the AMPTP broke down. The September 27 end date brings the strike to a grand total of 148 days — making it the longest since the 153-day WGA strike of 1988.
That said, while Hollywood’s writers will soon be able to go back to work, its actors are still on strike for the time being. The Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) is in the midst of own labor dispute with the AMPTP, and began striking on July 14. Like the WGA, SAG-AFTRA is seeking better streaming residuals and safeguards against the use of artificial intelligence.
