CNN
—
On Saturday evening, major film and television studios gave striking writers their “best and final” offer, a person close to the situation told CNN, adding significant hope that negotiations to end the months-long strike will end with an agreement. This weekend.
Negotiators with the Writers Guild of America were expected to review the offer and provide their response.
The Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers held talks for the fourth consecutive day on Saturday. If a tentative agreement is reached, it must be ratified by rank-and-file members before it can take effect.
“The WGA and AMPTP met for negotiations on Saturday and will meet again on Sunday,” the two groups said in a statement.
The big four studio bosses — Warner Bros. Discovery chairman David Zaslau, Disney chairman Bob Iger, Netflix co-chairman Ted Sarandos and NBC Universal studio chief Donna Langley — were not a single person in the Sherman Oaks room Saturday afternoon. It indicates that almost all major issues have been resolved. The person insisted that, while not directly in the room, studio heads were fully involved in the process.
Spokesmen for AMPTP and the WGA did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The 11,000-member WGA has been on strike since May 2, and the strike reached its 145th day on Saturday. The strike comes less than two weeks after the longest strike in union history, which lasted 154 days in 1988. Several productions were halted before SAG-AFTRA joined the WGA in the July 14 strike.
Negotiations between the WGA and AMPTP include disputes over wages, worker protections and artificial intelligence.
Warner Bros. Discovery is the parent company of CNN.
Even if a tentative agreement is reached, it must be ratified by rank-and-file members before it can take effect. Even then, ending the WGA strike without an agreement with SAG-AFTRA, which represents about 160,000 actors, would do little to restart the halted production.
The WGA went on strike on May 2The strike reached its 145th day less than two weeks after the longest strike in union history, which lasted 154 days in 1988. Many products were discontinued before then. SAG-AFTRA joined the WGA in the July 14 strike.
Both sides have similar demands, including better wages, residual money from streaming services for their work, and job protections against the use of artificial intelligence.
Chris Isidore, Michael Watson and Taylor Romine contributed to this report