WGA East Leaders Break Down Guild’s ‘Risky and Unusual’ Effort to Honor SAG-AFTRA Picket Lines: ‘We Have to Keep Supporting Each Other’

The strike is over, but the fight is not yet won.

On Wednesday, as the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike formally ended after 148 days, Variety spoke with newly elected WGA East president Lisa Takeuchi Cullen and WGA East executive director Lowell Peterson about the end of the work stoppage at the East coast guilds membership meeting to discuss their tentative three-year MBA agreement with the Hollywood studios.

While the deal still needs to be ratified following a member vote to be held from Oct. 2-9, the details revealed about the pact with the Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers (AMPTP) are points the WGA East leadership is immensely proud of and has every hope will be cleared by the union.

Thats one of the realizations thats gonna settle into a lot of members as we go forward is that, not only did we achieve these gains, we achieved them forever, Takeuchi Cullen told Variety on Wednesday evening prior to entering the Manhattan Center for the membership meeting. Its now codified in our contract, and they can never go back from declaring that writers rooms must exist for television shows, from defining what a showrunner is, and that the showrunner is a writer, from giving us these protections for AI, which we knew was a storm that was right around the corner, and we knew we had to handle it now in this negotiation, or in three years, it would be too late, she said.

Peterson added: Early on, we read a lot in the trades and we heard across the table from the AMPTP, and some of the industry side people, the company side people, saying, you cant want everything, thats just not the way it works. But then we would say, we do want everything but it wasnt greed, it wasnt over-ambition on our part, because this stuff is interlocking.

As WGA is nearing the end of their battle with the AMPTP following a 148-day strike, actors guild SAG-AFTRA is just about to return to the table to restart negotiations about their own deal. See below for more from Varietys QA with Takeuchi Cullen and Peterson, in which they break down WGAs risky and unusual choice to try to get the AMPTP to agree to their desire to continue to respect SAG-AFTRAs picket lines while the actors guild seeks a resolution of its strike that began July 14.

What was the turning point in negotiations for you?

Lisa Takeuchi Cullen: Im gonna say the big turning point was when SAG-AFTRA joined us. That was a huge turning point that changed the game. I think that the studios perhaps always expected that the writers would walk and maybe that was always a part of their calculations. I will bet you $100 thats all I have right now because Ive been unemployed for five months I would bet you $100 that they never, ever expected the actors to walk. And so when they did, it changed everything for us. And our members continued to stay strong on the line. Our union brothers and sisters on the Teamsters and IATSE and musicians guild, all of the other unions supported us. And for me, personally, emotionally, that was the turning point.

Lowell Peterson: The solidarity of SAG-AFTRA, the Teamsters and IATSE, that is something that the AMPTP didnt bargain for. They thought they could isolate us and they were wrong from day one of our strike. And it became crystal clear on July 14, that we were not going to be isolated and that playbook had to be ripped up and thrown out. I was out on the line this afternoon. There were a lot of Writers Guild members. Were going to be out there with them the way they were out there with us. Were not striking but were standing in support and picketing. Theres something energizing about having people from various unions with you, as youre marching to negotiate the best contract you can, and were going to do that for SAG-AFTRA the way they did for us.

I know there were conversations late in negotiations with the studios about wanting to still respect SAG-AFTRAs picket lines once you reached a tentative agreement. How did you arrive at that choice and what is the attitude upon your inability to ultimately get that ask past the AMPTP?

Takeuchi Cullen: We made the risky and unusual decision to add that ask in the middle of negotiations. In the midst of being out on the picket lines with all these other unions supporting us, we knew that some other unions jobs are protected if they dont cross another unions picket lines except for certain Teamsters and certain IATSE Locals. But SAG doesnt have that, none of the other unions have that. We wanted to make that ask and make that push to show the studios how serious we were about all of our unions being united in our asks and our needs and demands. And even though we, in the end, didnt get that provision, we are going to continue to tell our members that we support these other unions. And just like SAG doesnt have that provision in their contract and still came out and supported us, were going to do the same for them and for the other sister unions.

A lot of SAG-AFTRA members see the points won in WGAs tentative deal as a sign of an easier negotiation process on those same issues for the actors guild. Would you say the same and are you in communication with them about their own upcoming negotiations?

Takeuchi Cullen: The writers have different needs than the actors do, although some of our issues certainly overlap, like in the issues of AI. But even there, not exactly. So our leaders and our staff, or executive staff, were in close contact with the leaders of those unions. Lowell has been talking to IATSE and SAG and Teamsters constantly throughout. So all of our leadership was in close communication. And in yes, we have to keep supporting each other.

Peterson: I think there are certain aspects of our deal that hopefully will pattern to SAG-AFTRA, and we hope weve created a momentum. Weve sort of broken the resistance of the AMPTP to the big changes that SAG-AFTRA is also looking for. Certain things, as Lisa said, are really gonna be specific. There are things that we got for writers that nobody else needed, there are things that they need for actors that nobody else needs, but the overall momentum and the fact that we were able to create structural change, I think will be helpful.

What is WGA East doing to help in the transition back to work, especially for writers that werent attached to writers rooms or out of work at the time the strike began?

Takeuchi Cullen: Here in the east, we dont have as many writers rooms as they do in the west. However, we have a good core of working writers, many in film, many in Appendix A on daytime serials, on comedy variety. We have a large proportion of the comedy variety writers here and those writers will go back right away. So were here to support them. The fight continues. We learned during the strike what a struggle it is for so many of our members to find work and keep working. And weve created more programs to help support them in that and were going to keep doing that. That doesnt end just because the strike has ended.

Peterson: Were giving as much information as we can possibly give on the details of the deal. And on the details of the return to work. And a lot of people are in different situations. So weve encouraged every member, if you have a specific question about how this works for you, call us. Let us help you out. There is going to be a lot of variation. But as Lisa says, the late-night shows well be going back shortly. Rooms will be reopening. But remember, production is still shut down. So its not as if suddenly a light switch is going to kind of flip and everybodys going to be back at work. Thats another reason to fight for SAG.

(Pictured: WGA East leaders including Lowell Peterson, third from left, and Lisa Takeuchi Cullen, fourth from left.)

This interview has been edited and condensed.