Hollywood screenwriters acknowledged their return to work this Monday after closing an agreement that ended almost five months of strike, but they still wait for their demands to be met in a case that has not yet been resolved.
The Writers Guild of America (WGA) reached an agreement this Sunday with the employers of the major studios and streaming platforms to end the strike that paralyzes the North American film industry, despite the continued “iron arm” between actors. and studies. .
“It has been a long and hard victory,” said screenwriter John August, a member of the negotiating committee, quoted by the Associated Press (AP) news agency. “But it’s good to be close to the end,” he added.
The agreement, which includes “significant gains” in terms of pay and also protections to regulate the use of artificial intelligence, still must be ratified by the union’s 11,500 members.
The WGA has indicated that it will authorize its members to resume work before the end of the process, with the specialty magazine Variety indicating that the information and entertainment broadcasts broadcast on various channels at the end of the day may be resumed within two days. three weeks.
However, uncertainty persists in Hollywood, where actors, represented by the SAG-AFTRA union, remain on strike and admit that the resolution of this social conflict could take weeks.
After the presenters return to work, it will still take months to get all the teams on stage and overcome the accumulated delays.
The commitment accepted by the studios with the scriptwriters includes an increase in the minimum wage, additional bonuses for those who write the best-viewed series and ways to ensure that artificial intelligence is used without affecting their remuneration.
The agreement also recovers many of the actors’ demands, which their union will analyze in detail, before the start of formal negotiations with the studios, but with SAG-AFTRA’s demands going beyond those raised by the WGA.
The authors’ union calls for a greater salary increase, and the attribution of a real percentage of the profits to the actors, regardless of the content, anticipating arduous negotiations.
The strike of Hollywood writers and actors has already cost California about five billion dollars (4.7 billion euros), according to the Milken Institute.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass issued a statement congratulating both sides on the deal and said she hoped the same could happen soon with the actors.
“We must now focus on recovering the entertainment industry and all the small businesses that depend on it,” Bass said.
About 11,500 WGA members went on strike on May 2 over pay issues and the use of artificial intelligence to create storylines.
Actors and screenwriters want to ensure that studios do not use Artificial Intelligence (AI) to replace them and they want to receive residual payments in the streaming model through platforms like Netflix.
Previously, these payments were granted to artists from the income of series or films licensed for international markets or broadcast on television.
Source: TSF
