Message to WGAE Members
Septemper 17th, 2024
Let’s face it, we let Reality TV grow and expand without us after the 1988 strike. And in 2007, we let it metastasize, losing both revenue and vital bargaining power. To withstand the rapid and potentially catastrophic changes tearing through our industry, we must link arms with every film and television writer in every genre and format by uniting on the MBA. We cannot let it happen again.
—Susan Baronoff, WGAW Member
Fellow Writers and Guild Members,
I’m a recent Councilmember, nonfiction writer, and rank-and-file organizer running for Council again to build long-term, sustainable bargaining power for our union. To achieve this, we must broaden our MBA’s coverage and transform our top-down union into a member-driven union with transparent and accountable leadership.
In my previous email, I wrote about how my experience as a Councilmember revealed that our union’s reliance on top-down mechanisms has left us with insufficient bargaining power, which in turn has hindered our ability to address our industry’s challenges and adequately support the majority of our members.
One example of these top-down mechanisms is the WGAE’s approach to organizing writers in genres that the AMPTP exploits as loopholes to our MBA’s coverage, including reality TV, documentary film and television, comedy/variety shows, game shows, and animation.
Rather than pursuing full coverage of these genres under the MBA, the WGAE has adopted a strategy that divides many of these writers across various siloed collective bargaining agreements, completely detached from the MBA. This not only denies them crucial MBA benefits but also prevents them from striking alongside writers on the MBA, significantly weakening our union’s overall bargaining power.
The Guild could pursue numerous tactics to integrate these exploited writers onto the MBA, including drawing lessons from the WGA’s own tactics from the early 2000s through the 2007 Writers Strike. These pivotal tactics should be openly discussed and debated among our membership, but dialogue on the matter has been completely stifled. From my Council experience, culminating in last year’s strike, I learned that our elected and unelected leaders are willfully keeping these discussions from happening. Instead of rationally bolstering the MBA, they are using shortsighted, top-down efforts to create the illusion of progress with separate, isolated agreements.
These misguided actions jeopardize our union’s long-term strength, and given the state of our industry and the uncertainty of what lies ahead, we can no longer afford to gain a little, only to lose a lot.
As I outline in my candidate statement, this campaign is about building power for our union while empowering our rank-and-file members, fostering true reciprocal solidarity, and holding our leaders accountable through transparency and genuine union democracy.
I would be grateful for your vote and deeply appreciate your support in this election. Regardless of the outcome, these necessary efforts will continue. If you want to help build a stronger WGA, I encourage you to get involved with the newly launched Writers Guild Autonomous Rank-and-file Caucus (WGARC). Feel free to reach out to me at bmrosenblum@gmail.com if you’re interested in learning more.
I look forward to working together with you soon.
In true solidarity,
Benjamin Rosenblum