The staff of the Writers Guild of America West have reached a tentative agreement after spending nearly three months on strike seeking a new contract.
The Writers Guild Staff Union, which is backed by the Pacific Northwest Staff Union, announced that it has reached a tentative agreement that would give staff members a minimum four percent salary increase retroactive to January 1, 2026, as well as additional raises of four percent by August 2026 and again in August 2027. It also secured seniority provisions for layoffs and a no-strike clause that both parties agree protects concerted activity.
“A ratification vote will be held in the coming days. The Bargaining Committee is enthusiastically recommending our members vote yes. Once ratified, the WGSU strike will end and Writers Guild staff will return to doing what we do best: defending the writers’ hard-fought gains and helping them build collective power,” said the WGSU Bargaining Committee in an official statement.
Staffers with the WGA West have been on strike since February, all while WGA leadership was negotiating its own new contract with the film and TV studios. The labor battle resulted in the cancellation of the in-person WGA West Awards ceremony, and things had gotten ugly between the two parties, with WGA West leadership as recently as late April accusing WGSU members of violence and intimidation amid picketing at the guild’s headquarters. The WGA West had also said an offer it had submitted back on April 8 was what it considered its best and final offer.
This CBA includes:
- Seniority provisions in layoff procedures that prioritize institutional knowledge and dedication to Writers Guild members.
- Minimum 12 percent increases for all Writers Guild staff over the course of the three-year term, including eight percent increases for all in the 2026 calendar year.
- Raising the salary floor from $43,000 to $57,000 retroactive to August 11, 2025, significantly improving take home pay for our lowest paid members.
- Longevity increases retroactive to January 1, 2026 for any WGSU member who has been in the same position or grade for five, ten, and fifteen years.
- Conversion to a wage scale modeled after the wage scale won by staff union siblings employed by WGA East.
- Just cause provisions with progressive discipline and a stepped grievance process.
- The creation of a Labor-Management Committee to establish healthy worksite communication between staff and Guild leadership.
- Protection of bargaining unit positions from replacement by AI, temporary employees, and/or contractors.
Both the WGA East and West (the two bodies operate separately but negotiate together with the AMPTP) reached a deal with the studios back in April that provides a large influx of money to the guild’s health and pension plans in exchange for a longer, 4-year deal term rather than the prior 3-year term, while it also maintained the gains it had earned in the prolonged 2023 labor strike over AI and streaming residuals.
