9-08-2023 6:09pm

The WGA has stated that it is willing to negotiate with individual studios

Anita Johnson-Brown Editor

On Friday, the Writers Guild of America (WGA) informed their members that they are willing to negotiate with major studios independently, rather than through the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). They claim that they have had positive conversations with independent executives who are open to agreeing to their terms. The WGA's statement is a gentle push for studios to move towards their direction, if they have not already done so.

The WGA has not had any formal discussions with the AMPTP since late August. Furthermore, the studios have not issued a new counterproposal since the WGA presented their proposal on August 15. The studios later publicly released a counterproposal to try and divide members. The WGA negotiating committee claims that this is a sign of AMPTP paralysis, and not a demonstration of the companies' power.

The guild also reminds everyone that the studios are not required to negotiate collectively as part of the AMPTP. This means that even though the AMPTP aims to have all of Hollywood's companies under one roof, they are all competitors with different interests.

The WGA now says that they have spoken with executives who claimed that the WGA proposals would not affect their company's bottom line. Additionally, some executives are willing to talk about certain proposals that the AMPTP says are "deal breakers." However, the WGA claims that some executives feel that they are being asked to give up more than they would like to as part of broader negotiations.

The guild wrote, "On every single issue we are asking for we have had at least one legacy studio executive tell us they could accommodate us. If the economic destabilization of their own companies isn't enough to cause a studio or two or three to either assert their own self-interest inside the AMPTP, or to break away from the broken AMPTP model, perhaps Wall Street will finally make them do it."

The WGA negotiating committee is urging companies inside the AMPTP who want a fair deal with writers to take control of the AMPTP process itself. Alternatively, they could decide to make a deal separately. At that point, a resolution to the strike will be in reach.

The Los Angeles News attempted to contact AMPTP for comments on the matter there was no response before the publication of this article.

By Anita Johnson-Brown

photos WGA