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This time three years ago, Hollywood was on the verge of historic union strikes. Started in May 2023 by the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and quickly joined by the Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) two months later, those unions were compelled, if not outright dared to strike when the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) — the entity representing studios and streamers — tried bullying them into offensive contracts. Basically, AMPTP aka Scrooge didn’t want to offer actors and writers livable wages/benefits, equitable restructuring of royalties for streaming, or protection from jobs being replaced by AI. The lone outlier that year among the triple crown of above-the-line unions was the Directors Guild (DGA), who swiftly and without fanfare agreed to terms with AMPTP.
A few trips round the sun and the picture in 2026 couldn’t look more different. For one thing, AMPTP has a new leader in Greg Hessinger (who, incidentally, was once National Director of SAG-AFTRA), and Hessinger seems to understand the value in negotiating with a conciliatory approach, rather than a combative one. Case in point: WGA has already agreed to a tentative deal with AMPTP, far earlier in talks than anyone thought probable.
“The AMPTP has reached a tentative agreement with the WGA,” a spokesperson for the group said tonight. “We look forward to building on this progress as we continue working toward agreements that support long-term industry stability.” … “Today, the WGA Negotiating Committee unanimously approved a tentative agreement with the AMPTP for the 2026 Minimum Basic Agreement (MBA) for a four-year term,” the guild said in a memo to members on Saturday. “Crucially, it protects our health plan and puts it on a sustainable path, with increased company contributions across many areas and long-needed increases to health contribution caps. The new contract also builds on gains from 2023 and helps address free work challenges.”
…The agreement between the AMPTP and the WGA, fronted by chief negotiator Ellen Stutzman, is one year longer than usual. That extended contact has proved a major initiative for the AMPTP with all the Guilds this year. … The deal also includes a big infusion of cash (AKA millions and millions of $$$) into the guild’s long troubled health and pension funds, we hear, as the writers’ union indicated in their statement Saturday.
The tentative agreement will have to go before the scribes’ rank-and-file membership for a vote to win approval. That process could take several weeks.
Considering that the WGA was on strike for a historic 148-days in 2023, there was not an expectation that the writers would lead the above-the-line entertainment unions in coming to an agreement — but clearly, miracles happen, this week and others.
Deadline dug into the less contentious mood at the bargaining table this year, which a labor source tells us was due in large part to a desire for “a reset in the relationship” from both parties. Particularly, the AMPTP’s new boss Hessinger was looking to cool things off and approach the union with a different tone than his predecessor.
It remains to be seen how this will affect SAG-AFTRA and DGA talks. The actors are expected to restart negotiations in June, but there’s a chance they pick things up earlier since the directors are not scheduled to bargain until May. Both current contracts expire on June 30.
To that the Christopher Nolan-led DGA praised the WGA tonight, as it prepared for a negotiation odyssey of its own. “The DGA congratulates the WGA on reaching a tentative agreement with the AMPTP that recognizes the value of their members’ work and helps them build sustainable careers,” the helmers’ union said online Saturday night. Echoing the thoughts of many around town this weekend, the DGA added: “We look forward to reviewing the details as they become available.”
Christopher Nolan is going to oversee DGA contract negotiations AND release The Odyssey this summer? Talk about epic! Though his comments on the new (tentative) deal were positive, Nolan has previously been skeptical about extending the usual three-year terms, claiming the industry changes so rapidly and often that committing to anything for more than three years was a bad idea. But the WGA had a greater deficit in health plan costs than its sister unions, so I guess bending to a four-year contract made sense for them. We’ll see what happens when the DGA starts their bargaining on May 11. In the wake of the WGA’s weekend news, SAG-AFTRA confirmed on Monday that they will resume their bargaining on April 27. Apparently SAG-AFTRA — who has their own star leadership in President Samwise Gamgee Goonie Sean Astin — had been in negotiations with AMPTP, but paused last month to let WGA have their turn. Also, while the WGA bargains with AMPTP as one entity, it operates as two groups, WGA East and WGA West. And for about two months now, WGA West has had their own internal strike; their staff unionized last year but went on strike when they couldn’t agree on terms with WGA West leadership. This isn’t strictly pertinent to the main story, I just find it a hilarious illustration of how complicated we humans can be.
Extending their contract by an extra year stuck out to me. A big reason the unions were so successful last round of bargaining was because their contracts all expired around the same time so they could threaten a really big strike by joining together with the other unions to really shut everything down. Which is probably why the bosses really wanted to stagger the expiration date of future contracts so workers wouldn’t have that kind of leverage again. I hope DGA and SAG get that and bargain accordingly.