UPDATED, 12:45 PM: Writers Guild members have ratified their new three-year contract with PBS stations WGBH, 13 and PBS SoCal.
“PBS writers secured a groundbreaking contract with their unwavering solidarity,” WGAE President Lisa Takeuchi Cullen mentioned in an announcement. “This contract covers PBS animation writers for the primary time. It additionally clarifies that writer-producers have to be paid for every respective job operate, and supplies AI protections, paid parental go away and plenty of different vital positive factors.”
Listed here are some highlights of the deal, offered by the union:
- All minimal charges will enhance yearly on the identical proportion because the WGA’s Minimal Fundamental Settlement (MBA): 3.5% upon ratification; 3% on July 1, 2025; July 1, 2026 to comply with the 2026 MBA;
- The Firms clarified that they’ll pay writer-producers a writing payment individually from their producing payment;
- The Firms will contribute a further .5% of lined earnings to the PWGA Well being Fund and any PBS author lined by WGA well being advantages might take as much as eight weeks of protected, paid parental go away ($2,000 per week), even when they don’t seem to be at the moment working;
- The WGA now covers animated applications over 5 minutes in size made for TV and new media. Pension & Well being contributions will probably be paid on prime of script charges for all writers and on prime of weekly salaries for workers writers, head writers, and story editors. Minimal charges will probably be in place for animated episodes that have been greenlit after December 9, 2024. Animation writers may also obtain residuals for AVOD and SVOD reuse (2% and 1.2% of accountable receipts, respectively);
- PBS will abide by the phrases and protections gained within the 2023 MBA on Synthetic Intelligence;
- Dwell motion applications over 8 minutes which might be made for brand spanking new media, with budgets which might be much like PBS’s made-for-TV nationwide applications, may have full WGA phrases. Moreover, stay motion applications over 8 minutes that don’t have related budgets to comparable nationwide TV applications may have negotiable charges and residuals, however will probably be lined by different WGA phrases like union safety, credit, AI protections, written contracts with outlined phrases, pension and well being contributions, and so forth.;
- Dwell motion applications proven on PBS web platforms (i.e.: Passport) exterior of their broadcast license now pay 20% of the minimal for the primary three-year out-of-license use interval (up from 17.5%) and 15% of the minimal for added web use after that (up from 12.5%).
- Reuse on AVOD (Promoting-based Video on Demand) platforms now pays 2% of gross receipts to the credited author(s) (up from 1.2%).
“This historic contract is the results of the energy and solidarity proven by our fellow PBS writers, the members of the Writers Guild of America, and the animation writing neighborhood,” The WGA-PBS bargaining committee mentioned. “With the assist of the devoted WGA East workers, we have been capable of safe a deal that gives key protections for all PBS writers. At a time when the mission of public tv is extra essential than ever, we sit up for working with the stations to proceed creating applications that inform, educate, and encourage.”
PREVIOUSLY, November 22: The Writers Guild of America has a tentative three-year take care of PBS member stations.
The union introduced the brand new Public Tv Freelance Settlement Friday, hours after the present contract expiration, which may have led to a strike if the events hadn’t been capable of hammer out a brand new one in time. Earlier this week, the 94-member bargaining unit approved a strike.
Now, the unit will vote to ratify the brand new settlement. Extra particular deal factors are anticipated within the coming days, previous to that vote.
For the primary time, the WGA says it was capable of safe union protections for PBS animation writers, who have been beforehand not lined below the Public Tv Freelance Settlement. This week, Deadline revealed that greater than 200 PBS animation writers signed a pledge of solidarity, promising to not cross their colleagues’ picket line.
The most recent contract additionally contains paid parental go away, AI protections, expanded union protections for made-for-new-media applications, elevated residual funds for reuse on streaming companies, industry-standard raises, and simpler paths for members of writing groups to entry well being protection, in response to the union.
“THIRTEEN, GBH, and PBS SoCal are happy to have reached an settlement with WGA East,” the member stations mentioned in a joint assertion Friday. “We sit up for persevering with our work to ship trusted public media to our audiences.”
