The Writers and the Hollywood Studios Met About the Strike but No Agreement Was Reached
The Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) met for the first time since the strike began on May 2, but they couldn’t come to an agreement to resume negotiations.
As reported by Variety, WGA chief negotiator Ellen Stutzman and WGA West general counsel Tony Segall were at AMPTP’s Sherman Oaks headquarters on Friday and took part in a meeting that lasted about an hour.
Unfortunately, the two parties were stuck on moving past two of the most important issues the WGA has made clear it will not back down from – establishing minimum staffing levels in episodic TV and guaranteeing a minimum number of weeks of employment.
Image Credit: Robyn Beck/AFP via Getty Images
The AMPTP claim these proposals are “non-starters” and it appears it won’t budge on that stance either.
The situation got a bit more complicated as well, as the WGA indicated that the writers will continue to “honor all picket lines” even if the two parties made a deal. This means Hollywood wouldn’t fully be back to work until both the writers and the actors of SAG-AFTRA were made a deal they could agree to.
In a letter to its members, the WGA said the Hollywood studios were also still “unwilling to engage” on the issues that impacted the TV writers’ rooms and wouldn’t discuss viewership-based residuals.
There appears to be a glimmer of hope, however, as a source has said both parties will remain in communication in the coming days after they’ve had the chance to speak with their respective constituencies.
As previously mentioned, The writers’ strike has been going on since May 2 and the SAG-AFTRA strike began on July 14.
For more on this ongoing situation, check out our look at how streaming is broken and why these strikes may be the way to save it.
Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.
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