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Could the Writers Strike Be Coming to an End?

Television fans, start your big screens.

Striking Hollywood writers are considering a contract proposal.

After nearly 15 weeks on the picket line, members of the Writers Guild of America received contract terms from their union leaders at meetings this weekend in New York and Los Angeles. Guild leaders are recommending the contract to members and ask them to vote on a quick end to the walkout.

By asking writers to vote separately on ending the strike and accepting the contract, the union cleared the way for the entertainment industry to return to work almost immediately.

Membership meetings will be held Tuesday in New York and Los Angeles to allow writers to decide whether the strike should be brought to a speedy end, said Patric Verrone, president of the guild's West Coast branch.

The tentative contract secures writers a share of the burgeoning digital-media market, Verrone said, including compensation for Internet-delivered TV shows and movies.

"If [producers] get paid, we get paid. This contract makes that a reality," Verrone said. But, he added, "it is not all we hoped for and it is not all we deserved."

This isn't the end of Hollywood labor negotiations. Actors' contracts are up in June. The Screen Actors Guild and the Writers Guild want to sync up their contracts so they can threaten the studios with a combined strike in the future.

From NPR reports and The Associated Press

Copyright 2023 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

Andrea Seabrook
Andrea Seabrook covers Capitol Hill as NPR's Congressional Correspondent.
Kim Masters
Kim Masters covers the business of entertainment for NPR News. Her reports can be heard on NPR's award-winning Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Weekend Edition. She joined NPR in 2003.