Posts tagged Writers Guild of America
WGA Members Uphold Vote to Expel Two Members for Strike Violations, but Rescind Censure Over Facebook Joke
May 12, 2025 // In a statement on Friday, Roth said she found it “disappointing” that WGA board members “decided to send out mass emails during the voting round to tip the scale in their favor and unfairly influence what was supposed to be a fair appeals process.” “This result will undoubtedly shape the standards by which the WGA and its Board continues to operate moving forward,” she said. “I hope members will submit their candidacy to run for the WGA Board before the May 15th deadline to address these serious issues.”
Writers Guild West Staffers Launch Their Own Unionization Drive (Exclusive)
April 24, 2025 // Now, many of those staffers are attempting to organize their own workplace, citing a desire to have their voices heard. WGA West employees are launching an effort to join the Pacific Northwest Staff Union, which specializes in representing workers in the labor movement, The Hollywood Reporter has learned.
WGA Strike Leaders Chris Keyser and David Goodman Warn Members to Stay Vigilant: ‘The Strike is Over, the Fight Goes On’
April 16, 2024 // “It’s exhilarating when we won a contract with so many benefits and protections for writers and since the strike ended as a show of enduring solidarity, I have remained unemployed,” joked late-night writer Josh Gondelman, who hosted the WGA East ceremony. Later in the night, WGA West president Meredith Stiehm took the stage to deliver a long list of thank-yous to other Hollywood unions and those who supported the guild during its 148-day work stoppage. Stiehm noted that unlike the 2007-2008 strike, the WGA received strong support from fellow unions last year. She indicated that WGA members are prepared to demonstrate solidarity with IATSE members later this year if that union winds up in a work stoppage. IATSE at present is deep in contract negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.
UAW President Shawn Fain plans to keep automakers sweating
January 1, 2024 // "I don't like what I've seen in my work career with the UAW leadership, where they were too damn close to the companies," UAW President Shawn Fain told CNN earlier this month. But when asked if things work better for his members when there's a less contentious or more contentious relationship between the UAW and the Big Three, Fain responded, "We just negotiated the most successful contracts in our history," he said. "For the last 30 years that I've been a member, we went backwards. So I like to let the body of work speak for itself," Fain said. The success of those contracts is the reason that Shawn Fain is CNN Business' labor leader of the year.
Commentary: The Hollywood Strikes Stopped AI From Taking Your Job. But for How Long?
December 28, 2023 // The “learn to code” crowd has all new ammo. Even Biden’s executive order was clear about the fact that the US government wanted to attract the best and brightest in the field. But that’s job creation, not job displacement. New technologies create jobs all the time, but with AI, some of those jobs pay pennies. What’s more, AI can also ask you to train it to do your job before picking up your tools. Going forward, the likelihood that AI will displace many entry-level jobs while creating a few highly skilled gigs seems high. The biggest questions in AI right now nearly all revolve around what these machines are learning from people, whether it’s human skill or human bias.
From Hollywood to auto work, organized labor is flexing its muscles. Where do unions stand today?
November 9, 2023 // There are also limits for organizers under current labor law. That means that what worked in auto workers' labor campaign, for example, may not look the same or be possible in other industries. Larger, more established unions typically have more bargaining power — and that's reflected in new contract wins seen today. “We have a labor law that was designed in the era in the 30s and 40s, when auto plants of 10,000 workers (were organizing)," he said. Starbucks is “split into these small coffee shops of 15 workers. ... They need to join together to have any kind of bargaining power against a big employer. But our labor law isn’t structured to help them do that,” Colvin said. Service jobs can also be hard to organize due to part-time work and high turnover rates. The same can be said for Amazon warehouses, where there have been pushes for unions.
The Actors Strike Is Over, Ending Hollywood’s Long Limbo
November 9, 2023 //
Even the AFL-CIO has union troubles
October 20, 2023 // After staffers picketed in D.C. last week, and two days of talks this week, the AFL-CIO proposed a revised contract to the union on Tuesday. Their last deal expired back in February and the last proposal from the AFL-CIO, in September, was overwhelmingly rejected — 97% of members said no. A vote on the latest proposal is expected by early next week.
More than 330K striking Americans help unions flex power
October 19, 2023 // More than 330,000 American workers — from Hollywood actors to medical technicians — have participated in strikes since the start of September, according to Cornell University's labor tracker. Why it matters: Labor unions enjoying their highest approval ratings in generations are deploying hardball tactics in far-reaching sectors of the economy.
75,000 Kaiser Permanente workers are on strike
October 4, 2023 // The multi-state strike comes during a time of elevated labor activity in the United States. Several large-scale strikes have paralyzed companies and entire industries in recent months. The United Auto Workers are on strike against Ford, General Motors and Stellantis — the first time the union has struck all three simultaneously. The entertainment industry also contended with dual strikes this summer after Hollywood’s writers’ and actors’ unions went on strike at the same time for the first time since 1960. The leadership of the Writers Guild of America reached a tentative agreement with Hollywood studios last month, but the actors’ guild strike is ongoing. The health care industry has been particularly affected by rising strike activity. From the start of 2022 through August of this year, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has tracked 42 work stoppages of 1,000 or more strikers. Its count shows a third of those strikes were in health care. That’s up from 24% of major strikes in 2019, the year before the pandemic. The increased number of health care strikes have happened despite health care workers making up only about 9% of private sector union members nationwide.