Good morning. It's Tuesday, Sept. 26. Here's what you need to know to start your day.
- What to know about the deal to end the writers' strike
- Hotel workers strike at five Santa Monica properties
- Community colleges are exploring new territory
- And here's today's e-newspaper
There's a (tentative) deal to end the writers' strike. Here's what's next
After nearly five months with their pens down and their picket signs up, Hollywood's striking writers could decide this week whether to get back to work.
The Writers Guild of America and major Hollywood studios agreed to a tentative deal late Sunday.
Details of the deal were not publicly available as of Monday afternoon, but the WGA negotiating committee described it to members Sunday as "exceptional — with meaningful gains and protections for writers in every sector of the membership."
The writers' union had been demanding increased pay rates and residual payments for streaming shows, along with new rules governing how artificial intelligence can be used.
"The writers' strike was, in many ways, a response to the tectonic changes wrought by streaming," Times writers Wendy Lee and Meg James reported. "Shorter seasons for streaming shows and fewer writers being hired have cut into guild members' pay and job stability, making it harder to earn a sustainable living in the expensive media hubs of Los Angeles and New York, guild members have said."
Writers could actually get back to work before voting on the new contract if WGA authorizes a return to work. WGA's negotiating committee will vote on whether to accept the new three-year film and TV contract, then pass it along to regional boards for approval. The guild's 11,500 film and television writers will vote to seal the deal. WGA picketing has been suspended, though thousands of SAG-AFTRA members are still on strike, so picket lines will continue to show up on Southern California sidewalks.
"It's a big exhale," writer Dan Ewen told Times contributor Pamela Chelin on Sunday as he and his peers celebrated the news at a Los Angeles bar.
Chris Stephens expressed that same sentiment when I asked him about the new proposal Monday. While he and fellow writers had not seen any specifics of the tentative deal Monday, he said they're "confident the negotiating committee wouldn't have settled for anything subpar."
"The overall feeling is a mix of celebration and relief right now," he said. "We also won't consider this to be truly over until SAG is also given a fair deal, and we'll stand in solidarity with them until that happens."
Writer Chris Stephens with his wife and fellow writer, Alisha Ketry, and their dog, Monty, at a WGA picket line outside Universal Studios. (Chris Stephens)
I first spoke with Stephens over the summer after his photos of trimmed trees went viral. NBC Universal violated city rules by trimming the trees without necessary permits, which also took away shade from striking writers during a heat wave. Stephens is technically a pre-WGA member, having been hired for his first TV writing job just before the strike started. His wife, Alisha Ketry, is also a writer and has been a WGA member for six years.
Stephens told me both he and Ketry are "pretty certain that we'll be working at our respective shows as soon as the deal closes." Their next challenge: finding a dog sitter once they get back to writing.
Today's top stories
Hotel workers have walked off the job at five Santa Monica properties after negotiations stalled. (Suhauna Hussain / Los Angeles Times)
More on workers' rights
Housing in California
More big stories
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Today's great reads
(Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times)
Where to get a low-cost bachelor's degree close to home and a job lead: Community college. More and more of California's 116 community colleges — struggling to remake themselves under pressure from declining enrollment — are venturing into higher education territory traditionally reserved for four-year institutions, offering bachelor's degrees that lead to careers in high-demand fields.
Other great reads
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For your downtime
Participants dance at sunset during the Natural High alcohol-free party at Elysian Park in Los Angeles. (Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)
Going out
Staying in
And finally ... a great photo
A family desperately burrows through razor wire in an effort to cross the U.S./Mexico border along the Rio Grande in Eagle Pass, Texas. They were turned away by a member of the National Guard. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
Today's great photo is from The Times' Robert Gauthier. More than 9,000 asylum seekers and counting have crossed the border from Mexico to Eagle Pass, Texas, where the mayor declared a state of emergency and Border Patrol agents have become overwhelmed.
Have a great day, from the Essential California team
Ryan Fonseca, reporter
Elvia Limón, multiplatform editor
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Laura Blasey, assistant editor
Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on latimes.com.
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