Studio CEOs Attend Latest Writers Guild Bargaining Session

Reaffirming the sense of urgency in the city to resolve the historic, ongoing writers’ strike, a group of top CEOs will attend Wednesday’s negotiating session between the Writers Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

Disney CEO Bob Iger, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos and NBCUniversal Studio Group chairman and chief content officer Donna Langley are all present at the meeting, which started around 10 a.m. The Hollywood Reporter has learned. It is highly unusual for the industry’s bargaining representative, the AMPTP, to directly involve CEOs in the bargaining sessions, which on the studio and streamer side are usually led by labor relations representatives and top AMPTP executives; but the industry-wide crisis caused by the ongoing strikes by writers and actors has prompted company leaders to become more directly involved in the talks.

A studio-side source with knowledge of Wednesday’s negotiations said: “CEOs have cleared their calendars and want to have a real conversation.” This person added that the WGA had submitted a list of issues in order of importance, from most thorny to least thorny, to the studio side, prior to the meeting. “This has been taking so long; everyone feels pain. Let’s go in and sort things out,” the source said.

THR has gone to the WGA and the AMPTP for comment.

A source on the studio side says company executives preplayed the negotiations on a Zoom ahead of Wednesday’s bargaining session. “They feel like the smaller the group, the more meaningful it will be. They want to go into a room and figure everything out,” this person said.

After weeks of lack of official talks, the AMPTP announced on September 14 that the parties would finally return to the table the following week. The Writers Guild of America said in its own message to members that “you may not hear from us in the coming days as we negotiate, but know that our focus is on getting a fair deal for writers as quickly as possible .”

One veteran showrunner notes of the union’s message: “I gathered from the guild’s language in the email (to members) that they expect real negotiations. To not talk for a while. They didn’t say that the last time they spoke to the AMPTP. At least they hope/expect something real.”

This isn’t the first time business leaders have dealt directly with the WGA during the 2023 labor dispute. On August 21, WGA leaders met with Iger, Langley, Zaslav, Sarandos and AMPTP President Carol Lombardini during a meeting south . Not long after the meeting, the AMPTP announced its Aug. 11 offer to the union, adding that the organization was “deeply committed to ending the strike and hopeful that the WGA will work toward the same resolution.” In its own communications about the meeting, the union claimed that during their meeting with top executives “we got a lecture on how good their only counter offer was” and denounced the “limitations, loopholes and omissions” of the latest offer.

Studio leaders have cleared their schedules in preparation for the discussion to take place later on Wednesday. Multiple sources suggest that if the meeting goes well, the caucus could last into the night. If the committee meets early, it could be a sign that little progress has been made.

Kim Masters contributed to the reporting.