Dathan Trevino EDINBURG- After 148 days of striking, the Writer’s Guild of America has officially secured a deal and effectively ended their strike. But SAG-AFTRA is still on the picket lines fighting for a fair deal.
The Writer’s Guild of America ratified the deal this past Tuesday, with 99% of writers voting yes. The deal includes increased health and pension contribution rates, compensation for series employment, residuals for streaming, as well as restrictions that prevent AI-written literacy from being considered as source material.
David Carren, UTRGV Theater professor and WGA member, disclosed the importance of this deal for future writers.
“The life blood of a writer, or an actor, a director, anyone in the film business, above the line is residuals,” Carren said. “I survived off residuals for more years than I can count in the film business. I bought a house when I didn’t work one year, and I bought the house with residual money. It was a much cheaper house than it would be today, but still you can’t do that now, so they fixed that.”
As for screen actors, SAG-AFTRA stated in a post on Oct. 12 that industry CEOs have “walked away from the bargaining table” after they refused to counter its latest offer.
As of Oct. 12, there is no word on when negotiations will open again.
