WGA Members Ratify New Contract with 99 Percent of Writers Voting in Favor
Brian Welk
Writers are overwhelmingly in favor of the new contract its guild has won from the studios. WGA members have voted in favor of ratifying the new minimum basic agreement, with an enormous 99 percent of members who voted approving the contract. The strike is officially over.
The guild said of the 8,525 valid votes cast, there were 8,435 “yes” votes and 90 “no” votes. Back in 2020, the last time the contract came up for a ratification vote, 98 percent of members approved it, but only 4,155 valid votes were cast.
Writers will now work under this contract effective through May 1, 2026.
“Through solidarity and determination, we have ratified a contract with meaningful gains and protections for writers in every sector of our combined membership,” said WGAW president Meredith Stiehm. “Together we were able to accomplish what many said was impossible only six months ago. We would not have been able to achieve this industry-changing contract without WGA Chief Negotiator Ellen Stutzman, Negotiating Committee co-chairs Chris Keyser and David A. Goodman, the entire WGA Negotiating Committee, strike captains, lot coordinators, and the staff that supported every part of the negotiation and strike.”
“Now it’s time for the AMPTP to put the rest of the town back to work by negotiating a fair contract with our SAG-AFTRA siblings, who have supported writers throughout our negotiations,” said WGAE president Lisa Takeuchi Cullen. “Until the studios make a deal that addresses the needs of performers, WGA members will be on the picket lines, walking side-by-side with SAG-AFTRA in solidarity.”
“The AMPTP member companies congratulate the WGA on the ratification of its new contract, which represents meaningful gains and protections for writers. It is important progress for our industry that writers are back to work,” an AMPTP representative shared.
Ballots went out to members on October 2, and they had one week to vote. WGA since announcing the strike was over on September 26 after 148 days has held meetings in which members were allowed to ask questions to leadership about the specifics of the deal.
There was always the slim possibility that writers could have voted against ratifying the contract, sending the negotiating committee back to the table and writers back to the picket lines. But writers have been championing the tentative deal since it was first unveiled. Never in Hollywood’s labor history has one of the major guilds failed to ratify a contract, though IATSE quite recently came very close.
Writers in this new MBA won 5 percent minimum wage increases in the first year of the contract, a guaranteed minimum number of staffers in a writers room both before and after a show is greenlit, increases in the streaming residuals formula, a brand new success-based residual that provides a bonus to writers who meet a streaming viewership threshold, and protections to ensure members’ work is not replaced or impacted by the use of generative AI tools, among other gains. Negotiating committee member John August spoke with IndieWire about some of the particular achievements and where work still needs to be done in the 2026 labor negotiation.
SAG-AFTRA is currently resuming its negotiations with the AMPTP after the actors have been on strike since July 14. The Writers Guild vowed “solidarity forever” with its sister union last week and urged the AMPTP to offer the actors a fair deal specific to its needs and not merely pattern bargaining based solely on the WGA’s own deal.
