After securing the confidence of their boards of directors, the Writers Guild of America East and West on Wednesday revealed the details of the new tentative agreement with the studios and streamers, including the plan to reestablish the solvency of the union health plan. The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers has agreed to pay a record $321 million into the WGA health plan. In exchange, as we exclusively reported in December, the writers will tack another year onto the contract.

If ratified later this month, the 2026 minimum basic agreement will span four years — a concession that is sure to ruffle feathers with the other above-the-line unions. As part of that cash infusion, the WGA managed increases in the employer contribution caps, which had been stagnant. Watch on Deadline In addition to the increases in employer contribution to the health plan, WGA leadership also wrote to members in a memo that they had “negotiated necessary plan changes, effective in 2027, adhering to goals of preserving choice and keeping out-of-pocket costs for writers as manageable as possible.” The union also touted increases in domestic and foreign residuals for streaming.

The success bonus established by the 2023 contract will increase to a 75% base residual for the most popular shows. The contract also includes annual minimum rate increases. The AMPTP agreed to continue holding meetings with the writers union on AI implementation and notify the guild if a studio licenses writers’ work for AI training. It does not establish any pay for writers for AI training. The deal also retains the status quo on minimum staffing. On the health plan front, we hear both sides went into talks ready to address this looming issue head on. We also understand the AMPTP took a much different approach with the writers this bargaining cycle.

Rather than go in with a low offer expecting a rebuttal, a labor source tells Deadline that the studios offered “hundreds of millions” to begin with. The deal was already “easily the richest package that was ever placed on a table with the WGA in the history of the relations between the parties,” the insider said. The AMPTP had been seeking a five-year contract but settled for four, while the WGA managed to squeeze some extra health plan money out of the studios and streamers than they’d initially proposed. In addition to the longer contract cycle, the employers were also seeking modifications to the health plan to cut costs.

That said, we understand that the WGA went into talks ready to make those concessions, too. The agreed upon changes include increases to monthly premiums and out-of-pocket expenses.

The guild has also agreed to eligibility changes for Extended Coverage Points. Technically, it is up to the guild’s board of trustees to approve changes to the health plan, but the contract stipulates that the adjustments must be made in order for the guild to receive the funds. Given the WGA has historically been the most obstinate of the three above-the-line entertainment unions, Saturday’s news that the writers were the first to strike a tentative deal with the AMPTP came as quite the surprise. While it seems everything went about as well as it could have, especially given the contentious relationship between the two parties just a few years ago, there is still more ahead for WGA management before they can call this a win. The WGA needs more than 50% support from the rank-and-file members in order to ratify.

While it is unlikely to fail the ratification vote, this contract may face more scrutiny from members than the last, not only because of the quick bargaining cycle but also due to some of the concessions the writers are facing.

Also, the deal was done before the guild held its fairly customary strike-authorization vote this time around. We hear WGA leadership was keen to avoid that vote, as was the AMPTP. That expected skepticism from members is likely why the union has chosen to pull back the curtain a bit more on the deal publicly prior to bringing it to the full organization for a ratification vote. That vote will run April 16-24. The WGA West staff is still on strike as well. After striking staff was booted off their health insurance plans on April 1, a person with knowledge said that western executive director Ellen Stutzman has met with the staff union’s leadership twice since AMPTP talks began.

In those conversations, she made it clear “what the path to a deal looks like,” one guild source says. That path is basically to take the March 11 deal management put on the table (largely ignoring a Hail Mary proposal from the WGSU at the end of March), though we hear there’s some room to negotiate. No word on whether the parties have met this week.