WGA Sets Showrunner Meetings This Week Ahead Of Contract Negotiations

EXCLUSIVE: The WGA is planning a series of meetings with top tier showrunners this week as it looks to rally the troops and gain support ahead of its negotiations with the AMPTP.

Deadline understands that the guild, including leadership and executive director David Young, is holding two meetings with key showrunners in LA. The first meeting is being held at 8:30am on February 28 in Santa Monica, and the second get-together is scheduled for 7:30pm on March 2 at WGA headquarters on Fairfax. Both meetings are understood to be in-person with no virtual option.

This comes ahead of its general membership vote on March 7 over its Pattern of Demands, which were unveiled earlier today.

The meetings are expected to be very similar in format and presentation to the meetings here in LA and in NYC that the Guild had with the general memberships over the past few weeks.

“It sounds like they want to rally the troops, and make sure everyone is on board, at the same time,” said one showrunner who intends to attend one of this week’s gatherings.

Unlike those previous sessions with the overall membership on upcoming negotiations, guild brass intend to ask showrunners to take the temperature of their writers, viewing the showrunners as a barometer, over this year’s talks with the AMPTP, led by Carol Lombardini. In a shift from the more informal sit-downs with showrunners that the union has put together in past cycles, the WGA is also expected to nudge the showrunners to engage with their writers on the looming talks and offer younger scribes “seasoned counsel”.

With the latest contract set to expire on May 1, the WGA will start official talks with the AMPTP on March 20.

Given that the Pattern of Demands is now public, sources have cautioned that it is just a broad starting point. Once negotiations between the WGA and the AMPTP start, more specifics will emerge.

Some of the topics are certainly expected including higher minimum rates, the issue of mini-rooms, increased residuals and increase contributions to its pension fund. Also, in a rapidly changing industry and consumer behaviors, there’s new issues in the mix, such as the use of AI.

“Especially with strike talk out there, there’s a lot of nervous people who need to settle down and dig in,” one source said of the discussions with showrunners.

Another source noted that different groups of writers are also looking for different outcomes. “There’s one group of writers that feels that a hard line, with the threat of strike action, is essential to reaching the best outcome,” the person said. “But I think there’s another group of writers who don’t participate as much in union activities and all they really want is a peaceful resolution to these negotiations so they can keep working.”

There’s been some suggestions that a strike would be good for the studios. The crux of this whisper is that given the current economic climate around streaming, the companies would welcome an opportunity to make further cuts, particularly around expensive overall deals.

But one source noted that this was “absurd” as it doesn’t take into account the costs related to talent and other associated shutdown costs.

“There’s a lot of money that goes to waste when you have a strike,” the source said. “Even though these companies are having a pretty rough time, I’m not sure their economics would be any better in the strike.”

Of course, this is all going down as award season heads into the final stretch with the WGA Awards on March 5 and the Oscars on March 12, two rooms that will have more than their fair share of scribes in attendance.

WGA reps did not respond to request for comment.