CBS News Ratifies New Contract with Writers Guilds of America, East and West

NEW YORK, NY (February 15, 2019) — The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) and the Writers Guild of America West (WGAW) have negotiated a new three-year collective bargaining agreement covering approximately 340 writers, producers, graphic artists, desk associates, and others at CBS News in New York, Chicago, Washington D.C., and Los Angeles.

“Guild-represented employees bring a tremendous amount of value to CBS News’ programs,” said Lowell Peterson, Executive Director of the Writers Guild of America, East. “The new agreement acknowledges that Writers Guild members have assumed more and more duties and play an integral role in getting the news on air and online.”

Highlights from the collective bargaining agreement include:

• An increase in all minimums (including those for contract producers and contract writers) by 2% per year.
• Preserving members’ current health benefits; the company agreed to pay 1.5% more in contributions to the Producer Writers Guild health fund.
• An accelerated schedule on which temporary employees earn paid compensatory days off (from three years to two years).
• An increase in producer fees and acting editor fees.
• Innovative protections for temporary promo writers in Los Angeles.
• The creation of formal meetings with relevant Company executives to discuss diversity in the workplace.
• A recommitment to a workplace where employees can do their best work free from sexual harassment and from a hostile work environment.

The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) and the Writers Guild of America West (WGAW) are labor unions representing writers in motion pictures, television, news and new media. The Guilds negotiate and administer contracts that protect the creative and economic rights of their members; conduct programs, seminars, and events on issues of interest to writers; and present writers’ views to various bodies of government. For more information on the Writers Guild of America, East, visit www.wgaeast.org. For more information on the Writers Guild of America West, visit www.wga.org.

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