Ahead of a March 16 start date for negotiations with the major studios, the Writers Guild of America has peeled back the curtain on the state of the union’s health and pension funds.

As Deadline has previously reported, things aren’t looking good. In a joint memo to members on Friday, the WGA East and West said that, at the current rate, the union’s health plan will run out of reserves during the term of the next minimum basic agreement (which, if the cycle remains three years, would be before 2029).

The unions say they added $37M in health plan costs in 2025 to sustain coverage amid a turbulent time in film and TV that has left many unemployed. While employer contributions have been raised in recent years, it has still fallen short of the members’ needs, the unions explained.

The WGA health plans offer Extended Coverage that allow writers to accumulate points that they can use to maintain their health insurance if they’ve lost employer-paid coverage. The unions say that the pullback in studio spending in recent years has forced more members to rely on Extended Coverage points even as less work has translated to less employer-paid contributions, as well.

“The severity of the contraction and the increase in writers using Extended Coverage points mean that the current contribution rate is not enough to keep up with costs,” the memo reads.

Rising healthcare costs have also squeezed the unions’ health plans and, as the WGA points out in its Friday memo, employer contributions are capped at $250,000 for any given screen project, making the fund difficult to replenish. The contribution limit for overall deal income is $275,000 per year.

“The WGA has proposed to increase various of these limits in each of the last five negotiations, but other than the minimal increase to the overall deal cap in 2018, the companies have refused,” claims the WGA, which also argues: “The companies can reasonably afford to increase contributions to adequately fund the health plan.”

Health and pension plans were expected to be a top priority for the WGA, DGA and SAG-AFTRA this bargaining cycle, as all three have been operating in a deficit the past few years for similar reasons. The WGA was hit particularly hard given the union is also still recovering from a 148-day strike in 2023.

The WGA said in its memo that the fact that it drained some of its reserves during the strike demonstrates “the necessity of reserves to be able to run a strike to fight for the contract writers need.”

“Returning to a place of running surpluses will build up Health Fund reserves. Given the skyrocketing levels of healthcare inflation, this will require plan design changes that will save money while preserving access to high-quality providers, in addition to increased revenues,” the memo continued.

We exclusively reported in December that the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers planned to offer the above-the-line unions massive cash infusions into their funds in exchange for longer contract cycles. So far, the WGA has not indicated whether it would be open to that agreement. Newly elected DGA President Christopher Nolan previously told reporters that he felt it was “inappropriate” to tie such a stipulation to any healthcare reforms.

As for the pension fund, the WGA assures that it “does not face the same immediate pressure” as the health plan, but members should expect this to be top of mind during bargaining as well.

“While the plan’s assets are carefully invested, we are subject to fluctuations in the stock market and the current federal government is not interested in trying to stabilize markets. As a result, we need to secure additional funding from our employers now,” the WGA said. “The industry is transitioning to a streaming-dominant business and our health fund needs additional funding because of the disruption the media companies have caused. All the while, employers are taking in billions in profits. As we enter another contract negotiation, it’s time to use our collective power to protect the core benefits of healthcare and pension.”