Scabby the Rat and about a dozen members of the Writers Guild Staff Union are still outside SAG-AFTRA headquarters on Wilshire Blvd this afternoon as inside the WGA and the studios wrapped up their first day of contract talks.
“What do we want?,” a throng of striking staffers chanted earlier Monday starting around 11:30 am PT. “A fair contract!”
“When do we want it?,” they added carrying mocking placards that read ‘WGAW Management: Do You Know How Unions Work?’ on the street ””Now!” was the reply.
In a day of some drama with the police being called at one point, the nearly-month long work stoppage by WGA staffers had some added irony Monday as the WGA West and WGA East negotiating committees officially sat down with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers for the first time since the gut wrenching strike of 2023.
Reps for the Greg Hessinger-led AMPTP, the WGA and SAG-AFTRA, who offered their facilities for the sister-guild sit-down, did not respond to request for comment on today’s activities either inside or outside Monday. Like they did with SAG-AFTRA in their unresolved talks that paused last night, the AMPTP, along with the WGA, has thrown down a media blackout on the latest Hollywood negotiations.
Not so much the striking WGA staffers.
“We’re not going away and we won’t shut up for the AMPTP talks,” a WGSU member told Deadline today of the protests. Having spent days outside the WGA West building on Fairfax and forced the cancellation of the guild’s March 9 LA awards show, the staff union intends to be outside SAG-AFTRA HQ repeatedly this week and going forward with the inflatable Scabby in tow, I’m told.
Seeking a deal for months, things collapsed between the WGA and the WGSU earlier this year with the latter accusing the former of negotiating in “bad faith.” Filing a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, the staffers alleged the WGA has “surveilled workers for union activity, terminated union supporters, and engaged in bad faith surface bargaining, showing no intention to come to an agreement on most of WGSU’s core issues.”
Just a couple of days ago, the WGSU took to social media to call out WGA chief negotiator Ellen Stutzman for what they took as a barbed snub and an about face on “seniority and job protection” points:
With more than a little labor egg on their faces, especially with no WGSU deal before the AMPTP talks began, the WGA take the opposite stance in this messy and embarrassing situation . The guild says they respect “the staff union’s right to strike, and will continue to bargain in good faith.”
In the spirit of that, the LAPD showed up outside SAG-AFTRA Plaza this afternoon after getting a call from insde the J.H. Snyder-owned building that WGSU protestors were on private property. Pulling up with a single squad car, an officer spoke to the assembled strikers, explained the situation and asked them to stay on public areas like the sidewalk — which they did.
Contrary to popular perception and a rather large Siegel + Gale designed logo on the side of the building, SAG-AFTRA do not own nor manage SAG-AFTRA Plaza. They are, along with LA County and others, mere tenants.
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