Dispatches From The Picket Lines: WGA & SAG-AFTRA Rally To Support California Granting Unemployment Benefits To Striking Workers; NYC Event Focuses On Climate Change

This is Day 76 of the SAG-AFTRA strike.

This is Day 76 of the SAG-AFTRA strike. 

This is Day 144 of the WGA strike and Day 71 of the SAG-AFTRA strike.

Over 140 days into the WGA’s strike, the latest resumption of talks today between the scribes and studios and steamers are leaving nothing to chance.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer Meredith Stiehm has been reelected as president of WGA West, in a strong show of support as the union’s strike continues into its fifth month. Stiehm took 3,354 votes, easily defeating Rich Talarico, who took just 300 votes. Two other officers were also reelected: Michele Mulroney, as vice president, and Betsy Thomas, as secretary-treasurer.

Gavin Newsom said in an interview today that he has been “deeply involved with talking” to both sides of the long-running Writers Guild strike and “we’re going to be meeting again later this week.”

As word spread of contract talks resuming between the striking Writers Guild and the AMPTP, striking SAG-AFTRA members continued with their pickets on Friday morning outside film and television studio addresses in New York City.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer The California Senate voted on Thursday to grant unemployment benefits to workers who are on strike. The bill passed with a 27-12 vote. The Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA have each expressed support for the bill.

A bill that would make striking workers in California eligible to receive up to $450 a week in unemployment insurance benefits passed in the state Senate on Thursday by a vote of 27-12. Senate Bill 799, which passed in the state Assembly last month, now heads to the desk of Gov. Gavin Newsom, who can either sign it into law or veto it.

As the SAG-AFTRA strike clocked its 62nd day, and the WGA’s 135th, the former held a massive solidarity march today from Netflix HQ on Van Ness Blvd to the Melrose gates of Paramount to juice guilds’ spirits with the entertainment industry work stoppage running past Labor Day.

A bill that wouldmake striking workers in California eligible to receive unemployment benefits was approved on Wednesday by a 4-1 vote of the state Senate’sLabor, Public Employment and Retirement Committee. Senate Bill 799, which has already been passed by the state Assembly, now goes to a vote of the full Senate. If approved there, it will be up to Governor Gavin Newsom to either sign it into law or veto it. Last year, he vetoed 169 bills while signing nearly 1,000.

A bill that would provide unemployment insurance to striking workers in California passed the state Assembly on Monday and now is headed to the Senate Labor Committee and then to the Senate floor. If passed there, Senate Bill 799 would go to Gov. Gavin Newsom for his signature.

Chuck Todd opened his final broadcast as moderator of NBC News’s Meet the Press by telling viewers that it was an understatement to call the gig “an honor and privilege of my lifetime.”

This is Day 130 of the WGA strike and Day 57 of the SAG-AFTRA strike.

Quentin Tarantino is going to make his self-declared “final” film in his hometown of Los Angeles, and the Golden State is welcoming the Oscar winner with open and lucrative arms.

California Governor Gavin Newsom says that it is time to “move on” from speculation that he would be a presidential aspirant if Joe Biden doesn’t run for president.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer The Writers Guild of America and SAG-AFTRA are pushing California lawmakers to grant unemployment benefits to striking workers. In California, workers currently do not receive unemployment pay when they are on strike. But state lawmakers are working on a bill, SB 799, that would extend benefits to workers who have been on strike for at least two weeks.

The Writers Guild and SAG-AFTRA will rally on Thursday at Amazon Studio in Culver City to highlight their push a bill that would provide unemployment insurance to striking workers in California. Striking writers and actors in New York and New Jersey are already eligible to receive unemployment benefits after 14 days on the picket line, but not in California.

This is Day 128 of the WGA strike and Day 55 of the SAG-AFTRA strike.

WGA West President Meredith Stiehm and SAG-AFTRA Secretary-Treasurer Joely Fisher were in Sacramento last week lobbying California legislators for passage of Senate Bill 799, which would make striking workers eligible to collect unemployment benefits. The bill passed through the Assembly Insurance Committee on Thursday and the Legislature has until September 14 to send the bill to the Governor’s desk.