WGA Extends Well being Care Advantages Via 12 months’s Finish for Writers Dealing with Oct. 1 Cutoff

The WGA West will prolong well being care advantages by 12 months’s finish to members who had been going through an Oct. 1 expiration of protection due to the strike.

The extension was labored out as part of the tentative contract settlement reached Sunday with the Alliance of Movement Image and Tv Producers, which can convey an finish the almost five-month strike. Information concerning the well being care protection extension was communicated to members through messages from the guild on Monday.

The information was shared in a message to members despatched by Lise Anderson, WGA West assistant govt director.

“Per the tentative agreemnt, WGA writers who’re scheduled to lose PWGA well being care protection on 10/1/23 will likely be prolonged protection for a further quarter by 12/31/23. The identical extension applies to writers who will exhaust their COBRA eligibility,” Anderson wrote.

The WGA West declined additional remark. The guild is getting ready for management votes on Tuesday on the ultimate phrases of the pact reached Sunday night time shortly after 7 p.m. PT. As soon as these votes are in — assuming each are affirmative — the contract will likely be despatched in full to WGA members for a ratification vote.

The deal is predicted to sail easily by votes by the WGA negotiating committee, the board and council of the WGA West and WGA East, respectively, and the roughly 11,000 members. The deal was described Sunday night as “distinctive” by the negotiating committee in its communication to members.

The WGA has been on strike since Could 2. The guild’s strike order in opposition to AMPTP signatories remains to be in impact however picketing has been paused. The expectation is that WGA West board and WGA East council will even vote to formally raise the strike order, which might set a date for writers to formally return to work for Hollywood’s main studios and streamers even earlier than the ratification vote is accomplished.

The WGA’s extension of well being care advantages echoes the transfer made by SAG-AFTRA — and authorized by management-side trustrees of the guild’s well being plan — in late August to increase protection by 12 months’s finish to members who earned a minimum of $22,000 or labored 85 days from July 1, 2022 by June 30, 2023. SAG-AFTRA has been on strike since July 14.