Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Writers Guild of America is two independent sister labor unions, the WGAE and the WGAW, that represent writers in film, television, radio, and online media. Together they negotiate contracts, launch strike actions, administer screenwriting credits, arbitrate disputes between writers, and run a script registration service.
The Writers Guild of America East is headquartered in New York City and affiliated with the AFL-CIO, while the Writers Guild of America West is headquartered in Los Angeles and unaffiliated with any national labor federation. Membership is determined by geography: work performed west of the Mississippi River falls under the WGAW, and work east of the river falls under the WGAE. The WGAW is the larger of the two unions.
Both organizations of the Writers Guild of America were established by 1954, following a reorganization of earlier groups including the Screen Writers Guild, which had been founded in 1921. The roots of the broader movement trace back to 1912, when the Authors' League of America was first formed to represent book and magazine authors.
The Writers Guild of America has conducted at least six major strikes since 1960. These include the 1960 strike (22 weeks), the 1981 strike (13 weeks), the 1985 strike (two weeks), the 1988 strike (March 7 to August 7), the 2007-08 strike (the 5th of November 2007 to the 12th of February 2008), and the 2023 strike (May 2 to the 27th of September 2023).
The 2023 Writers Guild of America strike ran from the 2nd of May to the 27th of September 2023. The disputes centered on residuals from streaming media and the use of artificial intelligence. Many productions were affected during those months.
The WGA screenwriting credit system determines who receives writing credit for film, television, and other media projects under the guild's jurisdiction. The guilds serve as the final arbiters in credit decisions, and the credit a writer receives is directly tied to their percentage of initial compensation and residuals for that project.