Hollywood writers not impressed with latest offer to end strike

(TND) — New details were released in an offer to get Hollywood writers back on the job, but the two sides don't seem to be on the same page yet.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, representing the studios, said it’s given the writers’ union a “comprehensive package which addresses all of the issues” it has raised in its monthslong strike.

The AMPTP said it is committed to ending the strike, and this offer is a substantial improvement over its previous offers.

The AMPTP released details of its latest deal this week, saying it’s offering the highest wage increase for the Writers Guild of America in 35 years, a compounded 13% increase over the three-year contract. It’s offering residual increases, more transparency on streaming viewership, and “landmark protections” for writers against the use of generative artificial intelligence.

“Our priority is to end the strike so that valued members of the creative community can return to what they do best and to end the hardships that so many people and businesses that service the industry are experiencing,” AMPTP President Carol Lombardini said in a news release.

The WGA negotiators were critical of not only the offer, but the AMPTP’s decision to release its details.

The two sides met Tuesday night – the 113th day of the strike.

“But this wasn’t a meeting to make a deal,” reads a statement from the WGA negotiating committee. “This was a meeting to get us to cave, which is why, not twenty minutes after we left the meeting, the AMPTP released its summary of their proposals. This was the companies’ plan from the beginning – not to bargain, but to jam us. It is their only strategy – to bet that we will turn on each other.”

The WGA said the deal didn’t address all its concerns and included “limitations,” “loopholes” and “omissions.”

The studios and writers resumed their negotiations earlier this month.

Meanwhile, the Hollywood actors’ union last month joined the writers in their own strike, marking the first joint strike in more than six decades and bringing much of television and movie production to a halt.