Who can join a writers union? The fight is on

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But this effort may soon come to an end.

Last month, the WGAE board announced it would take a break from working with new digital outlets looking to unionize. There is a lively debate among GTAE members on the inclusion of digital media workers in what was once a union dominated by television and film writers. On one side of this debate is a group that wants the union to consider taking digital stores out of the WGAE. But many digital media professionals, as well as some traditional screenwriters, see themselves as important allies who pay dues in an industry that overlaps and evolves. This issue is the main point of contention between the two tickets for this week’s WGAE council election.
The WGAE and its West Coast counterpart, the Writers Guild of America, West, have proven to be a powerful force in creating change in the media industry. The WGA went on a 100-day strike in 2007 and 2008 to resolve issues such as paying writers for using their work on the Internet. The strike grabbed national headlines as popular television shows and late-night talk shows were re-broadcast as the writers of those programs picketed the line.
The strike was one of the reasons Tamara Fuentes, associate entertainment editor for Cosmopolitan who works for both the website and the print magazine, said she looked forward to becoming a member of the WGAE once his union of some 500 editors in Hearst Magazines digital and print media brands ratify their first contract.

“To have that kind of name with us and to know that they want to support us and to know that they will do anything to make sure that we get the victories that we rightly deserve is both an honor and such a privilege, ”said Fuentes, who is on the Hearst Magazines Media Union bargaining committee. “Hearing that some people are not so happy that we are involved … is a little hurtful because we just want to help each other.”

A “bright spot” that darkens

Gawker’s union was revolutionary for the digital media industry. Former Gawker writer Hamilton Nolan wrote before the A 2015 union vote indicated that he and his colleagues “would like to ensure that items such as wages and increases are set in a fair, transparent and impartial manner” and suggested that “every workplace could have recourse to a syndicate “. Six years later, many digital media companies are enjoying these benefits and more.

“It has been a real beacon of hope throughout the labor movement,” said Nolan, who is now a union reporter for In These Times magazine and on the WGAE board.

The WGAE, founded in 1954, had around 4,000 members during the 2007-2008 strike. But in recent years, that number has grown to over 6,000, largely thanks to the addition of over 1,000 digital media workers.

Nolan told CNN Business that he started hearing “whispers” of dissent around the organization of digital media among WGAE members a few years ago, but believed it was ‘a “minority feeling” until last year. Today, he is one of seven Solidarity Slate candidates running for the WGAE board. The position of the ticket echoes Nolan’s 2015 writing: “Everyone deserves a union,” the campaign’s website read.
But the opposite ticket – Inclusion & Experience – calls into question the new organization. Its campaign website says television and film writers could become “a minority in the guild they have founded.” Concerns include financial instability in part from a hypothetical situation in which WGAE members could switch to WGAW and take their dues with them.

Christopher Kyle, a long-time former board member who is featured on the Inclusion & Experience ticket and runs unopposed for secretary-treasurer, told CNN Business that for every dollar in dues digital members pay, the guild spends $ 3 to organize and maintain them. Some union members, including those from Solidarity Slate, would say this is a worthwhile investment.

“I think it’s just a short-sighted, cynical way of looking at how to run a union, of measuring the dollars on the ledger sheet to see if what we’re doing succeeds or fails,” said David Hill, vice -President of the National Writers Union and a former organizer of the WGAE and other unions.

“We don’t succeed or fail if we generate more income,” Hill continued. “We either succeed or fail in the labor movement if we really hold bad bosses to account, if we really raise the standards, standards of work and lives of media professionals. “

Michael Winship, a board member listed on the Inclusion & Experience ticket and unopposed presidential candidate, served as president of the WGAE from 2007 to 2017 and endorsed Gawker’s membership in the guild at the time. He then oversaw the digital union boom at WGAE.

“I blamed myself among others for it,” Winship told CNN Business. “We thought it was a good idea to increase our membership a bit, but it just became this avalanche of people that was so overwhelming.”

Lisa Takeuchi Cullen, a board member who is on the Inclusion & Experience ticket and running unopposed for vice-president, said the guild wanted to be more transparent and communicative with members than they were during the rise of the digital organization.

“None of this is the fault of our digital media members. They cannot be faulted for thinking the organization would continue at a breakneck pace,” Cullen said. “It’s the guild’s fault.”

The “strongest model” for organized work

The July email informing WGAE members of the organizational hiatus and the election campaign was a wake-up call to grassroots members who were unaware of the turmoil.

“I was surprised,” said Alison Herman, editor of the sports and cultural site The Ringer. “My experience working with WGA staff, East and even meeting some of the board has been nothing but support and enthusiasm in its own right.”

Herman said she discovered the debate on social media, namely Twitter. She has since used the platform to publicly share your support for l’Ardoise Solidaire and repeatedly pressed scriptwriter David Simon, who is seeking a third term on the board on the Inclusion & Experience ticket, on his post.

Simon, who has been a member of the WGAE since 1985 and is the creator of the blockbuster hit show “The Wire,” told CNN Business that he believes the interests of the current members are at odds.

Unions are “stronger when they target the industry they are trying to influence,” Simon said. “The merged unions are in many ways, while they are able to support themselves and provide basic services to members, they are not the most solid model for what organized labor and bargaining collective can accomplish. ”

One of Simon’s concerns is that digital store board members would vote against a strike in the future.

“The contract issues that matter to screen and television writers may seem secondary if the fight for them disrupts the organization and goals of other industries,” Simon wrote in a recent blog post.

Sara David, astrology editor at Vice Media and Solidarity Slate board candidate, told CNN Business that she plans to stand alongside her peers.

“I don’t understand all the rhetoric that journalists are coming to steal their power and mess up their priorities when we literally want to be on their side,” David said. “I would tie my arms with a janitor, nurse, teacher if that made my bargaining stronger.”

However, members of the Inclusion & Experience ticket envision a future in which digital media workers are lumped together in their own independent union or functioning as a local division of the WGAE. Simon suggested that some stores might be better suited to NewsGuild, another union he was a part of when he worked as a reporter for the Baltimore Sun. The board has created a sub-committee to conduct a membership assessment and propose options.

Josh Gondelman, a TV comedian and writer running for the Solidarity Slate board, argued that the growing number of WGAE members, including digital media workers, is “good for the overall power of the union and its bottom line. long-term “.

“It seems short-sighted to us to draw such boundaries based on how news and entertainment is delivered,” Gondelman wrote in an email to CNN Business. “This is what the studios are doing to avoid paying fair writers on streaming entertainment in many cases.”

Nolan, the former Gawker writer who is also part of Solidarity Slate, stressed that the election result should not further divide the union.

“We cannot come out of this election acting like we are enemies of each other,” Nolan said. “We have to work together and that makes us stronger.”



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