Striking Hollywood writers are due to return to work by the middle of the week after endorsing a deal yesterday to end their three-month dispute with the studios.
WGA West president Patric Verrone
The unanimous approval of the deal by the Writers Guild of America (WGA) came a day after the union and studios finalised details of a settlement hinging on how much writers should be paid for work distributed over the internet.
While WGA leaders acknowledged the agreement falls short in some areas, they emphasised it avoided any of the roll-backs initially sought by studios and made key, if modest, gains in the growing arena of new media.
"This is the best deal this guild has bargained for in 30 years, after the most successful strike this guild has waged in 35 years," WGA West president Patric Verrone said.
Union leaders said they were ending further picketing, which has become a regular occurrence outside many of the studios and production facilities around Los Angeles and New York.
But the 10,500 film and TV writers who walked off the job on November 5th, ending 20 years of industrial peace in Hollywood, are not expected to officially return to work before Wednesday.
This is because the governing boards of the East and West Coast branches of the union opted to wait for members to vote on the plan themselves before the strike is officially lifted.
The TV industry has been especially hard hit, with most prime-time comedies and dramas shut down since mid-December. Ending the strike now would allow networks to salvage some of the remaining broadcast season, as well as show development for the autumn.
It now seems likely the Academy Awards can go ahead on February 24th without disruption.