The staff of the Writers Guild of America West went on strike on Tuesday, accusing leadership of the union of breaking labor laws.
The strike will affect about 100 of the 150 staffers at the union. The workers, represented by the Pacific Northwest Staff Union, voted to authorize a strike last month after talks broke down.
“The Writers Guild Staff Union (WGSU) has called an unfair labor practice strike in protest of ULPs committed by Writers Guild of America West management,” the union said in a statement. “Guild management 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.”
The union members will begin picketing outside the WGA West headquarters.
The move comes one month before the WGA is due to sit down with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers to begin bargaining a new contract for Hollywood TV and film writers. The union leadership has said that it expects bargaining to go on as normal despite the strike.
In a statement on the guild’s website, the WGA said that it will continue to bargain in good faith with the staff. The union also stated that AMPTP negotiations “in particular will be minimally impacted since the executive staff and managers who play key roles working directly with the WGA Negotiating Committee will not be on strike.”
WGA West headquarters will be closed to the public and to members for the time being, however. Screenings at the Writers Guild Theater will also be suspended.
The WGA West has denied the allegations of bad faith bargaining, but said in a statement that it respects the staff’s right to strike.
“During the course of 19 negotiating sessions since September, the Guild has offered the staff union comprehensive proposals with numerous union protections and improvements to compensation and working conditions,” the WGA West said. “PNWSU’s allegations of unfair labor practices are without merit. The WGAW Board, WGA Negotiating Committee and executive staff will continue to prepare for the upcoming MBA negotiations, and management staff will carry on the core functions of the Guild. We look forward to a resolution of a first contract with the staff union.”
The WGA staff picketed outside a member meeting at the Sheraton Universal Hotel last week. The members are pushing for “just cause” and seniority protections, as well as an improved wage scale. The staff union has said that 64% of the members make less than $84,850 a year.
The union organized last spring, and negotiations on its first contract began last September. Dylan Holmes, co-chair of the WGSU bargaining committee, told Variety that staffers did not expect that bargaining would drag on so long as to affect the AMPTP bargaining window.
“We would have never guessed that we would be so far apart that it felt like we were speaking different languages,” Holmes said.
The WGA has published a side-by-side chart outlining the two sides’ positions; the WGSU has published its own chart. The staff union has also protested the termination of three employees, and filed an unfair labor practices charge with the National Labor Relations Board last August.
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