On today’s episode of the Daily Variety podcast, Variety’s Gene Madaus details the four-year agreement between the Writers Guild of America and the Motion Picture and Television Producers Alliance, which will be sent to members for a ratification vote on April 16th. This time, the union’s focus was entirely on strengthening health care programs.
The guild will have to make some difficult adjustments to its plans, which have long been structured to compensate its members for what will inevitably be several years of downturn when it comes to employment.
“The WGA has long had a plan that was the Cadillac of Cadillacs, a very low-cost plan with zero premiums for an individual and $50 a month for a family. Obviously, that’s going up,” Maddaus said. “This is definitely a change for the worse, and it leans into the basic reality of health care inflation. But the other big change is obviously the shrinkage (in the industry) and the impact that has had on the fund. And if you lose $200 million from the health care fund over four years, that’s going to lead to liquidation. And that’s our position.”
The agreement, which member states are to vote on, has a four-year term, which is longer than the three-year standard that has been the norm for decades. While the WGA was forced to provide this reprieve to ensure funding flows into health plans, don’t expect four years to be the new normal. SAG-AFTRA and the Directors Guild of America will each hold separate negotiations with AMPTP in April and May, so questions remain about whether they will agree to a four-year term.
“It was almost like a trade-off (by the WGA). We wanted to strengthen our health care plan, and we got what we wanted and they got what they wanted,” Maddaus says. “Going forward, 2030 will come sooner than we think. The WGA is not interested in making four years the standard. They want to treat three years as the default.”
