It’s officially official: The Writers Guild of America has agreed to a tentative new four-year contract with the studios and streamers, says the Greg Hessinger-led Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. The shocker deal, which was on very few people’s Holy Week and/or Passover bingo card, could prove transformative for how Hollywood labor works, literally and figuratively.
“The AMPTP has reached a tentative agreement with the WGA,” a spokesperson for the group said tonight. “We look forward to building on this progress as we continue working toward agreements that support long-term industry stability.”
Mum on the how long the deal will run for, the WGA went online to make it seal the deal publicly
“The WGA Negotiating Committee has unanimously approved a tentative agreement with the AMPTP for the 2026 Minimum Basic Agreement (MBA),” the guild said. “This deal protects writers’ health plan and puts it on a sustainable path, builds on gains from 2023, and helps address free work challenges. Members will receive more information in the coming days.”
As we reported earlier on Saturday, the agreement between the AMPTP and the WGA, fronted by chief negotiator Ellen Stutzmanm is one year longer than usual. That extended contact has proved a major initiative for the AMPTP with all the Guilds this year — as Deadline exclusively reported back in December.
Though it took hours and hours today for the official news to come out, the deal also includes a big infusion of cash (AKA millions and millions of $$$) into the guild’s long troubled health and pension funds, we hear and as the WGA indicated in their statement Saturday.
The tentative agreement will have to go before the scribes guild membership for a vote to win approval. That process could take several weeks.
The news of the agreement came as quite the legitimate surprise, given that the parties have only been negotiating for a few weeks and that the WGA have long been the most strident of all the Tinseltown guilds. What makes it even more of an earthquake, or at least a tremor, is that the WGA reached a deal with the AMPTP while its negotiation predecessor this round, SAG-AFTRA, could not. The Sean Astin-led guild pushed further talks with the studios and streamers until June
This tentative WGA deal comes far ahead of the current contract’s May 30 expiration date.
Considering that the WGA was on strike for a historic 148-days in 2023, there was not an expectation that the writers would lead the above-the-line entertainment unions in coming to an agreement — but clearly, miracles happen, this week and others.
Deadline dug into the less contentious mood at the bargaining table this year, which a labor source tells us was due in large part to a desire for “a reset in the relationship” from both parties. Particularly, the AMPTP’s new boss Greg Hessinger was looking to cool things off and approach the union with a different tone than his predecessor.
It remains to be seen how this will affect SAG-AFTRA and DGA talks. The actors are expected to restart negotiations in June, but there’s a chance they pick things up earlier since the directors are not scheduled to bargain until May. Both current contracts expire on June 30.
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