The Writers Guild of America East (WGAE) and West (WGAW) have ratified a new, three-year, collective bargaining agreement for over 250 CBS News staffers in New York, Chicago, Washington, and Los Angeles.

The agreement covers news writers, producers, artists, desk associates and others.

According to the unions, among the top line items in the new agreement is a minimum 2% pay raise in each of the three years for full-time employees, plus a pension rate increase paid by CBS. Temporary employees will get a 3.5% increase in year one, 3% in year two and 3.25% in year three.

Also: WGAE Strikes First Contract with Anchored Streaming News Service

Other highlights include producer-level fee increases, fees for having to fill in for an EP or senior producer in certain circumstances, parental leave and severance pay for long-term full-time temps.

Also on the severance front, the new agreement includes a boost for long-term staffers, up to 72 weeks pay for "certain layoffs."

CBS and the unions will also be talking about a process for requesting to work from home, a common ask in the the wake of COVID-19-related sequestering.

"The agreement represents 'real gains,'" said WGAE Executive Director Lowell Peterson. “Because our members at CBS News mobilized and made their voices heard, we won a solid contract that raises pay, includes a hefty boost in pension contributions, increases fees, and makes transformational gains for longer-term 'temporary' employees – severance pay and parental leave," he said. ■

The Writers Guild of America East (WGAE) and West (WGAW) have announced their 2021 Writers Guild Awards nominees and Netflix got the most nods, followed by HBO and CBS.

Broadcast net nominations were primarily for news, with only Fox scoring multiple primetime nods for writing on its animation.

The awards, for outstanding writing in TV, new media, news and radio/audio, will be handed out March 21 at a virtual ceremony.

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Netflix's 10 nods included The Crown (written by Peter Morgan and Jonathan Wilson), Ozark (Laura Deeley, Bill Dubuque, Paul Kolsby, Miki Johnson, Chris Mundy, John Shiban, Ning Zhou, Martin Zimmerman), and The Queen's Gambit (Scott Frank and Allan Scott).

HBO's nine nominations were for shows including Raised By Wolves (written by Aaron Guzikowski), High Maintenance (Isaac Oliver), and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (Johnathan Appel, Ali Barthwell, Tim Carvell, Liz Hynes, Greg Iwinski, Mark Kramer, Daniel O'Brien, John Oliver, Owen Parsons, Charlie Redd, Joanna Rothkopf, Chrissy Shackelford, Ben Silva, and Seena Vali).

Streaming service HBO Max got four nods of its own, three for children's shows Mo Willems and the Storytime All Stars Present: Don't Let the Pigeon Do Storytime (Mo Willems), The Not Too Late Show with Elmo (Geri Cole, Scott Gray, Benjamin Lehmann, Wendy Marston, Andrew Moriarty, Ken Scarborough, and Moujan Zolfaghari), and The Power of We: A Sesame Street Special (Geri Cole). The other was for new series The Flight Attendant (Kara Lee Corthron, Michael Foley, Ryan Jennifer Jones, Ticona S. Joy, Meredith Lavender, Jess Meyer, Daniele Nathanson, Marcie Ulin, Ian Weinreich, and Steve Yockey).

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CBS was the top broadcast nominee with six, plus one for OTT service CBS All Access and one for WCBS-TV New York, which is co-owned with the network.

ABC got five nomination, but none for primetime. Its nods were four for news and one for daytime drama.

Fox also had five, all in the animation category. Four were for The Simpsons (Dan Vebber, Cesar Mazariegos, Jessica Conrad, and Danielle Weisberg) and one for Bob's Burgers (Katie Crown). In fact, Fox has all but one animation nomination, the other going to Netflix's BoJack Horseman (Nick Adams).

NBC had five as well, spread over writing for late night, comedy/variety, daytime and quiz/audience participation.

Other outlets getting multiple nominations included five for Hulu, three for Amazon Studios, three for Disney Plus, and two for Apple TV Plus.

Facebook also got two for promotional writing.