Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) is a labor union composed of thousands of writers for television shows, news programs, documentaries, animation, video games, news media, theatrical motion pictures, and other related industries. ¹ Together with the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE), WGAW represents writers and negotiates industrywide collective bargaining agreements. ²

WGAW consists of a total of 25,120 members. This total includes 11,810 current members, 1,946 post-current members, 7,701 emeritus members, and 3,663 associate members. ³ As of 2023, WGAW is not affiliated with the AFL-CIO labor federation. ^{4 5}

On May 2, 2023, WGAW called a strike amid a labor dispute with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. ⁶

History and Leadership

The predecessor organization of Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW), the Screen Writers Guild, was co-founded in 1933 by John Howard Lawson. ⁷ Lawson was a member of the “Hollywood Ten,” who were blacklisted for alleged Communist sympathies. ^{8 9}

In 1954, the Screen Writers Guild merged with a group of unions representing television and radio writers from both the West Coast and the East Coast of the United States to form what would ultimately become WGAW and the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE), which jointly negotiate industrywide collective bargaining agreements. ¹⁰

In 1993, WGAW rejected affiliation with the AFL-CIO labor federation. ¹¹ WGAW members have gone on strike in 1960, 1981, 1988, 2007 to 2008, and 2023. ¹²

David Young is the executive director of WGAW. ^{13 14} Prior to being appointed as executive director in 2006, Young was WGAW’s director of organizing. ¹⁵ He first joined the union in 2004 and led negotiations for WGAW since 2007, when the union went on strike for 100 days. In February 2023, Young stepped away from ongoing negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers due to health concerns. ¹⁶

WGAW is governed by a 16-member board of directors and three officers: a president, vice-president, and secretary-treasurer. The board of directors has the exclusive power and authority to employ and discharge an executive director, who is responsible for administering the union’s daily business. The board also has the power to select attorneys, employ and discharge agents, appoint members to ad hoc committees, and enforce and administer collective bargaining agreements. ¹⁷

Meredith Stiehm has been the president of WGAW since 2021. ¹⁸ As of August 2023, Stiehm is running for re-election as WGAW president. ¹⁹

Activities and Funding

Writers Guild of America, West (WGAW) is a labor union composed of thousands of writers for television shows, news programs, documentaries, animation, video games, news media, theatrical motion pictures, and other related industries that are presently constituted or may be reconstituted due to developments or discoveries and fields involving any means of production, exhibition, or distribution yet unknown. ²⁰ The labor union represents writers for the purpose of negotiating, enforcing, and administering collective bargaining agreements. ²¹

WGAW is governed by a constitution and bylaws that were most recently revised in May 2016. WGAW membership consists of current members, post-current members, associate members, and emeritus members. ²² As of 2023, WGAW consists of a total of 25,120 members. This number consists of 11,810 current members, 1,946 post-current members, 7,701 emeritus members, and 3,663 associate members. ²³

In 2020, WGAW’s Committee of Black Writers demanded “systemic change” to industry hiring practices amid support for the far-left Black Lives Matter movement ²⁴ and claimed that the industry refused “to prioritize hiring Black writers.” ²⁵ WGAW has a total of nine critical race theory-influenced inclusion and equity committees: the Asian American Writers Committee, Career Longevity Committee, Committee of Black Writers, Committee of Women Writers, Disabled Writers Committee, Latinx Writers Committee, LGBTQ+ Writers Committee, Middle Eastern Writers Committee, and the Native American and Indigenous Writers Committee. ²⁶

WGAW also has a seven-member Strike Fund Committee, which forms at least eight months prior to the expiration of an industry-wide collective bargaining agreement and establishes guidelines for the distribution of money maintained in WGAW’s strike fund in the event of a strike. The fund solicits member input and establishes criteria for distribution to members that face financial hardship due to a workers’ strike. ²⁷

WGAW is connected to the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) through the WGAW Platform. WGAE is a member of the AFL-CIO labor federation, while WGAW is not. ²⁸

2023 Strike

In April 2023, members of the Writers Guild of America (which includes both WGAW and WGAE) voted in favor of authorizing a strike should negotiators fail to agree to a new deal after their previous agreement was scheduled to expire on May 1, 2023. ²⁹

After several months of unsuccessful negotiations, WGAW and WGAE launched a writers’ strike on May 2, 2023 after failing to agree to terms with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. ³⁰ The strike includes at least 11,500 WGAW members, ³¹ has the support of the AFL-CIO labor union, ³² and has impacted production and work at Amazon, the Walt Disney Company, Fox, Comcast NBCUniversal, Netflix, Paramount, Radford, Sony, Television City, and Warner Brothers. ³³ This is the first WGAW strike since a 100-day strike that took place between November 2007 and February 2008. ^{34 35}

WGAW writers’ “pattern of demands” in this negotiation include addressing what WGAW calls “abuses of mini-rooms,” additional compensation for writers for extra time that is needed to write program episodes, and new regulations governing the use of artificial intelligence in the writing process. WGAW is also seeking standardized compensation models, new provisions to cover comedy and variety programs on new media platforms, increased residuals for undercompensated reuse markets, increased contributions to pension and retirement funds, and additional regulations regarding exclusivity and the left-wing concept of pay equity. ³⁶

Political Positions

Writers Guild of America West supports the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which provides protected status to illegal immigrants who were brought to the United States as children. In 2017, WGAW called the potential deportation of these illegal immigrants a “shameful crime of prejudice and malice.” ³⁷ Also in 2017, then-WGAW president Howard Rodman sent an email to all WGAW members calling for the resignation of then-President Donald Trump, claiming that Trump “disgraces our nation.” ³⁸

The labor union has called to incorporate left-of-center narratives about climate-related issues into “any kind of story.” ³⁹

In 2008, WGAW formed a political action committee (PAC) to advocate for its political interests. ⁴⁰ In the 2020 election cycle, WGAW PAC endorsed 51 candidates including the presidential campaign of Joe Biden. ⁴¹

Funding

Writers Guild of America, West receives most of its funding from members’ dues. WGAW members are required to declare their quarterly earnings to the union before paying their quarterly dues. Dues payments include a 1.5 percent charge on an individual’s earnings and a $25 basic charge per quarter. ⁴²

The WGAW board of directors also has the right to impose a $2,500 fee for all new WGAW applicants. The board of directors also has the discretion to apply a lower application fee with a minimum of at least $500 to applicants in designated fields within the writing industry. ⁴³

In 2023, WGAW reported revenue of $84,587,362 and expenses of $74,539,604. ⁴⁴ Of these expenses, WGAW spent $369,463 on political activities. ^{45 46}

In 2022, WGAW reported revenue of $72,640,601 and expenses of $72,498,622. ⁴⁷

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3. Writers Guild of America West, Annual Report of a Labor Organization (Form LM-2), 2023. Schedule 13.
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32. “AFL-CIO Stands in Strong Solidarity with WGAE and WGAW Members on Strike.” AFL-CIO. May 2, 2023. Accessed August 13, 2023. https://aflcio.org/press/releases/afl-cio-stands-strong-solidarity-wgae-and-wgaw-members-strike.
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37. “Writers Guild Statement on President Trump Rescinding DACA.” Writers Guild of America East. September 6, 2017. Accessed August 13, 2023. https://www.wgaeast.org/writers-guilds-statement-on-president-trump-rescinding-daca/.
38. McNary, Dave. “Writers Guild of America West: ‘President Trump Disgraces Our Nation’.” Variety. August 16, 2017. Accessed August 13, 2023. https://variety.com/2017/film/news/writers-guild-of-america-west-president-trump-disgrace-1202529623/.
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