WGA & AMPTP To Resume Bargaining On Friday

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer Negotiations between the Writers Guild of America and the major studios remained in limbo on Monday, after a week of public sparring failed to result in forward movement. The sides have not formally met since Aug. 18, when the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers rejected the WGA’s Aug.

SAG-AFTRA’s negotiating committee said Sunday it “remains ready at a moment’s notice to go back to the bargaining table to secure a righteous deal” to end the actors’ strike, which is now in its 46th day. “Unfortunately, as we’ve seen from the recent news out of the WGA negotiations, it appears the AMPTP is still unwilling to make the concessions necessary to make a fair deal that would bring the strikes to a close.”

As Hollywood waits for the WGA’s official response to the AMPTP’s latest contract offer, a ray of sunlight emerged for comedy/variety writers in the latest back-and-forth.

Coming out of the public relations week from hell, the studios and streamers are looking for the firm that fought off Pizzagate to help them in the war of words against the striking Writers Guild.

The Writers Guild said today that the AMPTP’s latest counteroffer for a new contract “is neither nothing, nor nearly enough.”

Just hours after the studios and streamers made public their latest “comprehensive package” towards a deal with the WGA, the guild has responded – and its seems the AMPTP and top CEOs may have strategically overplayed their hand.

WGA leaders met face-to-face with key CEOs on Tuesday evening as executives sought to pitch the guild on their most recent contract offer in the hopes of ending the nearly four-month-old strike. Late Tuesday, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers released details of the contract offer presented to the WGA on Aug. 11.

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The Writers Guild and the AMPTP didn’t come back to the bargaining table Monday. The two sides last met on Friday, after which the guild told its members that talks would resume sometime this week. The strike is now in its 112th day.

EXCLUSIVE: Sources are telling Deadline that the Writers Guild and AMPTP are resuming talks this afternoon. We’re told it’s not in person, rather a zoom. We understand that the WGA will be delivering their counter to AMPTP’s counterproposal from Friday.

Labor Day traditionally signals the end of summer and puts the TV industry into fall mode, focusing on the launch of the new broadcast season. While broadcast is no longer the only — or even the main — game in town, Labor Day has remained that threshold after summer vacations when the TV business kicks into high gear.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer The Writers Guild of America met Friday with the major studios for the first negotiating session since May, and received a new package of proposals. The WGA told members in an email that it would respond to the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers next week.

After their first day of bargaining since the Writers Guild went on strike May 2, the AMPTP and the WGA have recessed their negotiations until next week after the companies made a counterproposal to guild’s proposals.

In the 15th installment of Deadline’s Strike Talk, the boys have put the band back together. Todd Garner, who launched the podcast with Billy Ray and then had to bow out to produce a film in Australia, returns after the SAG-AFTRA strike shut down production on his film.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer The Writers Guild of America will resume negotiations with the studios on Friday, the guild told members in an email. The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers is set to deliver a response to the guild’s proposals, the union said.

Editors note: One in a series of stories marking the 100th day of the WGA strike.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer The Writers Guild of America strike reaches its 100th day on Wednesday, equaling the duration of the last strike with no signs that labor or management is about to back down from hardened positions that have fueled the contract impasse. The WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) had their first meeting in three months on Aug. 4.

Meeting for the first time in more than three months, the Writers Guild and the AMPTP on Friday failed to reach an agreement to resume contract negotiations. Their inability to agree on terms for returning to the bargaining table comes after their much anticipated meeting to discuss a possible resumption of talks.  

WGA chief negotiator Ellen Stutzman and WGA West general counsel Tony Segall ran about an hour on Friday afternoon at the Sherman Oaks headquarters of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. Sources said the WGA duo made clear that the guild will not bend on proposals to establish minimum staffing levels in episodic TV and a guaranteed minimum number of weeks of employment. The AMPTP has called those proposals non-starters, and gave no indication on Friday that they’re prepared to change that position.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass weighed in again on the writers and actors strikes that have shut down much of production in the region, telling the sides that she stands “ready to personally engage” to reach a resolution.