The WGA Deal’s ‘Cruelest Cut’: Healthcare — and Why Some Members May Vote No
Exclusive details from Saturday’s member meeting: ‘They had us over all the barrels,’ says Marc Guggenheim
I host the Ankler Agenda podcast and wrote about Taylor Frankie Paul and Disney’s Bachelorette mess, and millennials’ challenges and Gen Z’s entry pains in the current jobs landscape.
On Saturday, the Writers Guild of America held a Zoom for its 11,000 members about the tentative bargaining agreement it inked after three short weeks at the negotiating table with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. Led by WGA East president Tom Fontana, WGAE exec director Sam Wheeler, WGA West president Michele Mulroney and the entire negotiating committee (including WGAW exec director Ellen Stutzman and co-chairs John August and Danielle Sanchez-Witzel), the 30-minute presentation was followed by an hour of questions, largely about the new healthcare provisions provided by a $321 million infusion from the studios into the guild’s struggling health plan.
Unlike 2023, a strike was averted.
But as members dug into the details, a more complicated picture emerged — one that for many feels less like a victory than a recalibration of what it means to actually survive in the business (and survive in America). Writers will see higher premiums, deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums, but more tellingly, eligibility just got harder in a climate where work is scarcer. “Sticker shock,” more than one member tells me.
Several members say they’re seriously weighing a “no” vote on the deal, which must still be ratified. (Voting begins Thursday and ends April 24.)
Still, “I think it’s about as good a deal as we could get in the current economy,” says showrunner Joe Henderson (Lucifer), summing up the sentiment many others shared with me.
Marc Guggenheim, creator of the Arrowverse, concurs: “The additional year and healthcare [out-of-pocket costs] are bitter pills to swallow. But there was no alternative or a better outcome. For 20 years, at least, the WGA had located all their leverage in the threat of a strike — and we obviously didn’t have that this year.”
Today I get into the good, bad and inconclusive of the deal — and who it benefits — including:
Healthcare “sticker shock”: rising premiums, deductibles and how the plan now compares to a typical U.S. employer offering
Why qualifying for healthcare just got harder — and how a writing dry spell will be more costly than ever
Growing concerns that the deal protects “the 1 percent, the 2 percent” while squeezing out working- and middle-class writers
If/come deal changes and what they mean for rank-and-file writers
Why AI largely got a pass in this negotiation
The view from SAG-AFTRA, which sits back down with the AMPTP soon, on whether a four-year deal adds up
How the WGA West staff strike has rankled members and its impact on the deal (it’s not just optics)
This column is for paid subscribers only. Interested in a group sub for your team or company? Click here.
For full access and to continue reading all Ankler content, paid subscribers can click here.
