Posts tagged writers
Hollywood unions, workers push back against Paramount-Skydance deal
June 8, 2026 // The event, held at Lumiere Music Hall, marked the first stop of a three-city "Main Street vs. The Merger" campaign organized by advocacy groups, industry workers, and the Writers Guild of America.
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.”
Writers Guild West Staffers to Lose Health Coverage Soon Amid Strike
April 1, 2026 // WGA West staffers can be covered by the Producer-Writers Guild of America (PWGA) Health Plan, the same plan that is offered to the Hollywood union’s members. Staffers accrue coverage on a month-to-month basis as long as they work 31 hours per week the previous month. Staffers unionized with the Writers Guild Staff Union (WGSU), who have been out on strike since Feb. 17, say they learned on Tuesday that they will lose eligibility starting Wednesday.
GSI, Kavin Give More Reasons for NJDOL to Abandon Independent Contractor Rule
November 3, 2025 // despite more than 99% of opposing comments to it, there were two new developments this week to show even more reasons why the effort should be abandoned. A new analysis from the Garden State Initiative showed how the rule would effectively threaten the livelihoods of thousands of freelancers, caregivers, and small business owners across the state. The report, Independent Contractor Rules Threaten New Jersey’s Small Businesses and Jobs: Lessons from California’s Failed Approach, said the rule would disproportionately affect “women and men with young children who rely on flexible hours,” retirees supplementing their income, and “immigrants and minorities, many who use gig work as a first step into the American workforce.”
CBS News Union Cautions Staffers Against Responding to Bari Weiss Memo About Work Activities
October 13, 2025 // On Friday representatives of the Writers Guild of America East suggested their members refrain from replying until they get more information about the message. "Many of you have expressed concern to us about the purpose of the email, and we share those concerns," wrote the director of the union's broadcast/cable/streaming news division and three field representatives. "That is why we sent the company an immediate demand to provide information about the email by Monday," the message continued. "We suggest that you refrain from responding until we are able to share the information that we receive so that you can make an informed decision by the Tuesday deadline." The guidance was first reported by Variety.
One Big Beautiful Law on American Radio Journal
July 7, 2025 // This week on American Radio Journal: Lowman Henry talks with Vincent Vernuccio from the Institute for the American Worker about the proposed Employee Rights Act of 2025;
Op-ed: California Legislature should drop latest attack on gig workers
April 21, 2025 // “The bill’s utter lack of detail is a problem,” William Messenger told us; he’s vice president and legal director of the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, which defends workers’ right not to be controlled by unions. “It’s almost like they’re giving that department the authority to just sort of make up its own labor law.” He contrasted that with Massachusetts, whose voters last November passed Question 3, which enacts gig driver rules, but runs to 33 pages and, among other things, details a hearing and appeals process.
Sesame Workshop Announces Major Layoffs
March 7, 2025 // Just a few months after Max said it would stop distributing episodes of Sesame Street, Sesame Workshop announced a round of major layoffs. In a letter to staff on Wednesday, March 5, president and CEO Sherrie Rollins Westin announced that Sesame Workshop will "downsize significantly," calling the cuts "necessary to ensure that the Workshop is poised to continue to deliver on its mission for years to come."
Op-Ed: The Case for Gig Worker Benefits
December 19, 2024 // Independent workers miss out on many fringe benefits associated with regular employment, such as disability insurance, life insurance, or health insurance. They are also ineligible for paid family or medical leave. In 2022, the proportion of self-employed adults lacking health insurance (18 percent) was substantially higher than that among all working-age adults (12 percent). These disparities result to some extent from tax policy. For the best part of a century, businesses have provided health insurance, pensions, and other fringe benefits to employees with pretax dollars—perks that self-employed workers did not enjoy.
Remote Work Is Reshaping the California Labor Market
June 5, 2024 // That flexibility may be desirable for workers and it could improve labor force participation. For instance, initial evidence suggests that the opportunity for telework may have improved employment among women in recent years. Additionally, remote work is a valuable option for workers with disabilities, though the recent shift toward remote work does not appear to be widespread among this group. In fact, occupations with more flexibility to work remotely have had strong employment growth. While overall employment fell 2% between 2018–19 and 2021–22, employment in occupations where at least half of workers report working from home grew 12%. The largest growth includes software developers, mathematical science occupations, management analysts, and computer hardware engineers. However, the occupations most likely to do remote work are writers and editors (3 of the top 10 remote occupations), even though this field is not growing very fast in California.