Striking Writers Guild Staffers Picket Outside Building Where Union Is Negotiating With Studios
The staff of the Writers Guild of America West on Monday brought their labor fight to SAG-AFTRA, where the writer’s union is commencing negotiations with studios and streamers. The Writers Guild Staff Union began picketing on the sidewalk outside the SAG-AFTRA headquarters on Wilshire Blvd. around noon after getting word that bargaining between the WGA…
The staff of the Writers Guild of America West on Monday brought their labor fight to SAG-AFTRA, where the writer’s union is commencing negotiations with studios and streamers.
The Writers Guild Staff Union began picketing on the sidewalk outside the SAG-AFTRA headquarters on Wilshire Blvd. around noon after getting word that bargaining between the WGA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) was starting there.
Picketers carried signs with slogans like “WGAMPTP,” “WGAW Management: Do You Know How Unions Work?” and “We Tried to Wrap This in September!” The union also erected Scabby the Rat, an inflatable rat that is a symbol of union disputes and alleged union busting, outside the headquarters of the actors’ union building.
The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to the WGA West for comment.
Striking Writers Guild West staffers march from the WGA West headquarters to the SAG-AFTRA building in Los Angeles.
In a normal contract negotiations period, many of the protesting staffers would be hard at work supporting the WGA’s efforts with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers rather than attempting to disrupt them — but these are not normal times. Members of the WGSU are on strike against their employer after alleging unfair labor practices like surveillance, the firing of a union organizer and bad-faith bargaining that the union itself has denied committing. Both sides failed to reach a first-contract deal that would resolve the strike prior to Monday, resulting in the head-spinning picket of one of the WGA’s most important events.
Scabby the Rat, an inflatable rat this is a sign of labor disputes, stands outside the SAG-AFTRA headquarters in L.A.
Courtesy of WGSU
The demonstration offered a stark counterpoint to the united front that the union maintained just three years earlier, during the WGA’s 148-day strike. At that time, the WGA’s rank-and-file staffers and executive staff worked in lockstep with members to continuously infuse energy into the prolonged work stoppage.
But that solidarity unraveled at the bargaining table after the WGA West voluntarily recognized its unionizing staffers in April 2025. During negotiations the WGSU failed to convince their employer to agree to specific language around wage scales, just cause, due process, seniority and workloads; the group has since accused the WGA management of failing to bargain in good faith.
WGA West management has countered by releasing a list of its own proposals for the union, including a wage scale that starts at $57,000 with annual wage increases. The union says it “respects the staff union’s right to strike, and will continue to bargain in good faith.”
Writers Guild West staffers have alleged that their employer has engaged in unfair labor practices, which the WGA West has denied.
Bargaining sessions took place the week before the WGA was set to head into negotiations with the AMPTP in a last-ditch effort to avoid awkwardness and a short-staffed bargaining period for the writers’ union. But those efforts did not result in a resolution, creating an embarrassing scene for the WGA at a key moment when the labor group would ideally want to project strength and unity.
It’s unclear at this point whether the WGSU will continue to picket negotiations after Monday, but if they persist at the SAG-AFTRA headquarters, it won’t be difficult for the union to get there. The WGA West, where WGSU typically pickets, is a mere 20 minutes’ walk from the actors’ union.
Signs carried by the striking staffers had messages like “WGAMPTP” and “ULP Strike.”
