Posts tagged Writers Guild Staff Union
Scabby the Rat comes for ‘Chicago Fire’ and ‘Med’ as PAs hours are slashed
August 12, 2026 // LIUNA Local 724 staged informational pickets outside production locations for NBC’s Chicago Fire and Chicago Med, including the real firehouse on Blue Island Avenue used as the exterior of Firehouse 51, protesting what the union says happened almost immediately after PAs on the two shows won their first union contracts. According to Local 724 and Production Assistants United, PAs on both shows had for years received guaranteed twelve and fourteen-hour workdays, with those guarantees written into individual deal memos. Because overtime begins after eight hours, those long days provided a significant portion of workers’ weekly income.
The Writers Guild West’s Struggle With Its Staff Union Gets Even Uglier
May 1, 2026 // Union president Michele Mulroney, executive director Ellen Stutzman, vice president Travis Donnelly and secretary-treasurer Peter Murrieta detailed the “final offer” they gave to the staff union ahead of negotiations that night. The same email went into detail on how WGSU strikers have “acted in an aggressive manner completely out of line with how writers have always operated during WGA strikes.” The leaders alleged that WGSU members had called writers “scabs” as they sought to enter the building where they were negotiating their 2026 film and TV deal and followed writers leaving the building or waited for them at parking lots, “at times shouting epithets and abuse.”
Weeks before studio negotiations, the Writers Guild of America’s staff union goes on strike
February 18, 2026 // Last month, the union first authorized a strike, with 82% of its members in favor. The staff union, made up of over 100 workers across legal, communications, residuals and other departments, was formed last spring and contract negotiations began in September. The bargaining has focused on concerns about the growth and use of artificial intelligence, pay raises and “basic protections” like grievance procedures.