Tom Fontana, Michele Mulroney and Danielle Sanchez-Witzel

Cindy Ord/Getty Images; JC Olivera/Getty Images; Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images

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In 2023, the Writers Guild of America appeared to take no prisoners in its contract negotiations. The union’s leaders called a strike authorization vote less than a month in, negotiated down to the wire, then launched a strike that lasted nearly five months and only ended once some of the industry’s top CEOs got involved.

So it was understandable when, this year, heads spun as that same union handled its latest contract negotiations very differently. After just three weeks of talks, the WGA cut a surprise deal with the studios that was distinct in its concession to a key studio demand, for a longer deal (four years instead of the typical three) to assure a sustained period of labor peace.

So what happened? It was clear the WGA’s health plan was in dire straits, which affected the union’s leverage, but had the typically aggressive union undergone a complete personality replacement?

Not so, some of its top negotiators said in a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter. Yes, the WGA needed to take dramatic steps to secure its health plan. But under the new leadership of Gregory Hessinger, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers also “came ready to talk about really what we needed and what they needed,” said negotiating committee co-chair Danielle Sanchez-Witzel.

And don’t go thinking that the WGA will always agree to a four-year deal cycle from here on out, added WGA West president Michele Mulroney. “I think it’d be fair to say our goal is to go back to three years,” she said.

Members still have to weigh in on whether they’re happy with these deal terms; their ratification voting period will end on Friday.

To learn more about the rationale behind the union’s unusually drama-free negotiation in the meantime, read THR’s interview with Sanchez-Witzel, Mulroney and WGA East president Tom Fontana below.

How did studios get you to agree to a four-year deal over a three-year deal?

Sanchez-Witzel: Look, the studios publicly expressed a goal to negotiate a five-year deal with all the unions. And it became clear at the table that a longer term was a top priority to them. And as Tom was just saying, keeping our health plan on the sustainable path was our top priority. So agreeing to a four-year deal this time allowed us to get more and new funding for the health plan than we’ve actually ever gotten before.

Mulroney: I don’t think, Katie, that we should assume this locks us into a four-year deal for the future. We’ve been in four-year deals before as this guild and we’ve reverted back to three, and I think it’d be fair to say our goal is to go back to three years. So this was what we needed to do for this negotiation cycle because we needed to get the health fund in order, and also we were able to negotiate for years three and four the ability to divert a half percent from our minimums into the pension plan in order to protect that in case it fell below a certain funding level. It’s in the green right now, we’re good, but we have that nice cushion that we were able to build into the four-year deal.

How did this deal get wrapped up so quickly compared to deals that you’ve negotiated in the recent past, where they’ve been more down to the wire?

[Laughs]

Fontana: None of us feel it was quickly.

Sanchez-Witzel: Yeah. I don’t know that any of us can even categorize it as quickly, but I understand the question. We had scheduled two weeks and agreed to continue into the third because we thought there was a good chance we were on the path to reaching a deal. And we were working on a deadline, which we made clear to the AMPTP, that if we had gone too far into April, we would have had to break off to take a strike authorization vote in order for there to be time to come back to the table for a couple of weeks’ negotiations before our May 1 deadline. So the companies indicated that they wanted to avoid a strike vote and came to the table ready to offer serious money for the health fund and address other issues. And as a member of neg com [the negotiating committee] in 2023, I feel like that was the big difference in 2026 is that they came ready to talk about really what we needed and what they needed.

What are the major achievements of this deal in your view?

Fontana: To get [$321] million to cover the health fund is a huge win for us. And I think that the other gains [are] the increases in the minimums and the residuals, and also I think persona

Writers Guild Negotiators Explain 2026 Contract Deal