LOS ANGELES (CNS) — The Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers released in a statement its offer to the Writers Guild of America and it was met with resistance and skepticism from the union leaders with a promise of a more detailed description of the state of negotiations Wednesday, according to media reports.
The AMPTP presented Tuesday what it calls a “comprehensive package” that addresses the “highest priorities” of the WGA, the Los Angeles Times is reporting.
“The offer recognizes the foundational role writers play in the industry and underscores the Companies’ commitment to ending the strike,” the AMPTP, which bargains on behalf of the major studios and streamers, told the Times.
The Times reported that the WGA negotiating committee, after meeting with members of the AMPTP on Tuesday, responded in a message to its members, “[T]his wasn’t a meeting to make a deal. This was a meeting to get us to cave, which is why, not 20 minutes after we left the meeting, the AMPTP released its summary of their proposals.”
The AMPTP and the WGA leaders met on Aug. 11 and negotiations lasted for four days. But they ended with no deal reached and prolonged the strike that started in May. Actors joined the striking WGA last month, which essentially shut down scripted production at all studios in Hollywood.
The two sides, WGA and AMPTP, met earlier this month, but they have avoided commenting in public about the negotiations until now.
The statement from the AMPTP follows a meeting Tuesday of WGA leaders and top studio executives, including Warner Bros. Discovery Chief Executive David Zaslav, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, Walt Disney CEO Bob Iger and Donna Langley, chair of Universal Filmed Entertainment Group, the Times reported.
Additionally, the Times reported the WGA negotiating committee, in a message to members late Tuesday night, said it agreed to meet with the studio leaders “in hopes that the companies were serious about getting the industry back to work.”
The WGA is pushing for improvements on a variety of fronts, notably for higher residual pay for streaming programs that have larger viewership, rather than the existing model that pays a standard rate regardless of a show’s success.
The union is also calling for industry standards on the number of writers assigned to each show, increases in foreign streaming residuals and regulations preventing the use of artificial intelligence technology to write or rewrite any literary material.
The AMPTP has pushed back against some of the WGA’s demands, particularly around its calls for mandatory staffing and employment guarantees on programs. AMPTP has also pushed back against WGA demands around streaming residuals, saying the guild’s offer would increase rates by 200%.
The studios have generally said they want the WGA and SAG-AFTRA to agree to similar terms already approved by the Directors Guild of America, which includes a roughly 12.5% salary increase and an estimated 21% jump in streaming residuals, along with assurances that artificial intelligence will not supplant the duties of human beings.
The AMPTP said in its statement, according to the Times, it is offering the largest pay bump for the WGA in 35 years, with wages increasing 5% in Year One of the proposed contract, followed by gains of 4% and 3.5% in subsequent years.
The WGA had sought a 6% increase to minimums and residual bases in the first year, followed by 5% increases in the second and third years, according to the Times.
More than 3,000 union members participated in a rally in front of Walt Disney Co.’s Burbank office on Tuesday is a show of solidarity with the actors and writers on strike.