A few weeks after the latest talks between the WGA and the AMPTP stalled out in late August, the two organizations are expected to resume negotiations on a new contract sometime next week.
In a statement Thursday, the AMPTP said that leadership of the Writer’s Guild of America, which has been on strike since May, reached out to the trade association and asked to set up a meeting for further discussion. According to the AMPTP, a specific date for the meeting has yet to be scheduled, but is being planned for next week.
“On Wednesday, September 13, the WGA reached out to the AMPTP and asked for a meeting to move negotiations forward,” an AMPTP spokeperson told IndieWire in a statement. “We have agreed and are working to schedule a meeting next week. Every member company of the AMPTP is committed and eager to reach a fair deal, and to working together with the WGA to end the strike.”
“The WGA and AMPTP are in the process of scheduling a time to get back in the room,” the WGA said in a statement to members on Thursday.
The guild is also meant to meet with a group of showrunners on Friday morning to provide an update on negotiations.
The WGA went on strike May 2, halting writing and development on guild-covered films and movies for four months. After almost 100 days without formal negotiation, the AMPTP and the WGA met on August 4 to discuss new terms for a contract. No deal was reached, and the two parties met again on August 11, and WGA leadership informed members that they had received a counterproposal that they were reevaluating.
The guild ultimately rejected the counterproposal on August 22, and in response, the AMPTP released the proposal publicly hours later. In a message to membership later that week, the WGA criticized the proposal as “neither nothing, nor nearly enough” and said they “will continue to advocate for proposals that fully address our issues rather than accept half measures like those mentioned above and other proposals not listed here.”
In addition to the WGA, SAG-AFTRA has also been on strike since July 14, leaving Hollywood movie and TV productions completely shut down for the foreseeable future. Currently, the AMPTP has not begun negotiations with SAG-AFTRA, instead focusing on ending the longer WGA strike.
