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WGA East-represented news writers and producers at HuffPost have ratified a new three-year contract. According to the guild, the pact was approved unanimously by the 91-member bargaining unit employed at the online news site.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer The Writers Guild of America East has tapped Sam Wheeler as the union’s new executive director. Chosen by the WGA East council as successor to longtime WGA East leader Lowell Peterson, who exited his post last October after the conclusion of the writers strike, Wheeler enters the role after serving as the national executive director of the American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA) since 2022.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Lowell Peterson‘s tenure as executive director of the Writers Guild of America East was destined to be bookended by strikes. After 15 years at the helm, Peterson will step down from his post as of Nov. 15 when his current three-year contract expires.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer The strike is over, but the fight is not yet won. On Wednesday, as the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike formally ended after 148 days, Variety spoke with newly elected WGA East president Lisa Takeuchi Cullen and WGA East executive director Lowell Peterson about the end of the work stoppage at the East coast guild’s membership meeting to discuss their tentative three-year MBA agreement with the Hollywood studios.

The WGA East and the Editors Guild, IATSE Local 700, have won a major victory in their joint effort to unionize producers and editorial employees at Story Syndicate, the Brooklyn-based documentary powerhouse behind such nonfiction features and series as Harry and Meghan and Unknown for Netflix, Fauci for PBS and I’ll Be Gone in the Dark and Last Call for HBO.

The New York City Council’s Committee on Civil Service and Labor passed a resolution today in support of a fair contract for striking actors and writers.  

SAG-AFTRA will hold a mass rally in Times Square on Tuesday morning. It’s expected to be the biggest rally in NYC since the strike began on July 14. Celebs scheduled to attend the “Rock the City for a Fair Contract” rally include Bryan Cranston, Steve Buscemi, Christian Slater, Lauren Ambrose, Christine Baranski, Matt Bomer, Tituss Burgess, Liza Colón-Zayas, Gregory Diaz, Jennifer Ehle, Nancy Giles, Danai Gurrira, Jill Hennessy, Marin Hinkle, Stephen Lang, Arian Moayed, Wendell Pierce, Corey Stoll and Merritt Wever.

International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees announced on Wednesday its “core principles” to addressing the rise of artificial intelligence in the entertainment industry, outlining its multifaceted approach to addressing technology that the below-the-line workers union says “threatens tofundamentally alter employers’ business models and disrupt IATSE members’ livelihoods.”“The stakes involved are high, therefore IATSE’s approach as a union must be comprehensive,focusing on Research, Collaboration, Education, Political and Legislative Advocacy, Organizing,and Collective Bargaining,” the union wrote.The announcement comes after IATSE political and legislative director Tyler McIntosh met this past weekend with Biden Administration officials and other union leaders for a discussion on the potential impacts of artificial intelligence on labor. Among those present were SAG-AFTRA general counsel Jeffrey Bennett, Writers Guild of America East executive director Lowell Peterson, and representatives from non-entertainment labor orgs such as AFSCME, AFL-CIO, and United Auto Workers.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer WGA East members at CBS News Streaming have renewed their union contract, which includes an annual pay increase of 3% for each of the next three years. The pact, which will see the first pay bump for WGA’s CBS News Streaming staffers retroactive to March 10, also covers an increase to all salary minimums, a $500 ratification bonus for all employees, and “further benefit improvements” for the 58 members of the CBS News Streaming bargaining unit, per WGA East. This second union contract for CBS News Streaming (the first signed in 2020) has been renewed amid the Writers Guild of America’s ongoing strike, which began following the union’s inability to reach a new agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) May 1.

As the WGA strike entered its fourth week, Tony Kushner swore, Steve Earle sang, Wanda Sykes led union chants and Busy Philipps told CEO jokes for more than 1,000 demonstrators and hundreds of onlookers who filled the street in front of NBCUniversal headquarters Tuesday in Midtown Manhattan. 

Members of the WGA East employed by Hearst Magazines Media have overwhelmingly ratified what the guild is calling a “groundbreaking” first contract that covers some 560 writers, producers and editors at 28 of the publishing giant’s brands, including Esquire, Cosmopolitan, Harper’s Bazaar, Town & Country, Good Housekeeping, Popular Mechanics, Car & Driver, Oprah Daily, Seventeen, Elle, Redbook and Woman’s Day.

EXCLUSIVE: As the deadline approaches to avert a threatened writers strike, IATSE President Matt Loeb has told leaders of his locals that it’s probably going to be do-or-die when the WGA’s current contract expires Monday night at midnight PT and that “he doubts an extension is in the cards.”

The editorial staff at Fox affiliate WNYW-TV New York has voted unanimously to ratify a new four-year contract with the WGA East. The 52-member bargaining unit includes news writers, writer/producers, assignment editors, segment producers, news assistants and feed coordinators.

The WGA East has filed an unfair labor practice charge against the Bustle Digital Group, claiming that three of the 39 guild members who were laid off there recently were terminated “in retaliation for their concerted, protected union activity in violation of the National Labor Relations Act.”

In a show of solidarity, more than 400 film and TV writers – including Adam McKay, David Simon, Tina Fey, Alfonso Cuarón, Lilly Wachowski, John Waters and Alan Zweibel – have signed a petition calling on MSNBC to negotiate a fair first-time contract with the WGA East for the cable news network’s news writers and producers.

The six-member editorial staff at Talking Points Memo has voted unanimously to ratify the WGA East’s new three-year contract with the political news website.

Podcast content creators at Crooked Media, complaining about the “degradation of our working conditions,” have unionized with the WGA East. According to the guild, an “overwhelming majority” of the podcast company’s 55 content creators have signed cards to unionize and are calling on management to voluntarily recognize the guild as their collective bargaining representative.

WGA East members employed as writers and editors at the HuffPost news site are threatening to go on strike if a fair contract can’t be reached by Tuesday night at midnight ET.

More than 130 WGA East members employed at several media outlets owned by Bustle Digital Group have signed a petition calling on CEO Bryan Goldberg to address their salary demands after nearly two years of contract negotiations. The outlets include Gawker, Bustle, Nylon, Elite Daily and Scary Mommy.

Averting a threatened strike, the 40 members of the WGA East employed at The Dodo have voted unanimously to ratify a new two-year contract with Vox Media, the parent company of the popular animal content site. All 40 members had signed a pledge to strike on Tuesday if a fair deal hadn’t been reached by today, when their old contract was set to expire.

WGA East members employed by ABC News have voted overwhelmingly – 96% in favor – to ratify a new thee-year contract. The 110-member bargaining unit includes news editors, news writers, continuity writers, researchers, assignment editors, desk assistants, production assistants and graphic artists based in New York and Washington, D.C who work at Good Morning America, WABC, ABC News Radio, NewsOne, and at the network desks for ABC’s national news programs.

WGA East members employed at NowThis, the progressive news site owned by Vox Media, have unanimously ratified their first-ever contract. The 65-member bargaining unit will see an average raise of 9% in the first year of the agreement, with the lowest-tiered employees receiving a minimum salary of $62,000 by the end of the two-year pact.

WGA East members employed at Vox Media digital news outlets have voted overwhelmingly in favor of ratifying a new three-year contract that was reached just hours before the union threatened to go on strike. According to the guild, 95% of those covered by the contract took part in the vote, and all but one voted to ratify it.

The board of governors at the American Society of Cinematographers on Monday reelected Stephen Lighthill as president for a third one-year term.

Some 260 WGA members employed at CBS News have voted overwhelmingly to ratify a new three-year contract. The new agreement, which was approved by 89% of those who voted, the guild said Monday, covers WGA East and WGA West members who work as news writers, producers, graphic artists, desk associates and others at the network’s news operations in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Washington D.C.

The WGA is gearing up for a showdown with the major companies next year. In his annual report, WGA East executive director Lowell Peterson told his members that the WGA East and West “have a lot of work to do at the bargaining table next year … to ensure that our members can sustain meaningful careers as the industry continues its transformation.”

Following a six-day strike and four days of picketing in New York City, WGA East members have voted near-unanimously to ratify a new contract with G/O Media covering about 100 staffers at its digital news outlets Gizmodo, Jezebel, The Root, Lifehacker, Kotaku and Jalopnik.

Nearly 100 WGA East-represented newsroom staffers have gone on strike against the Gizmodo Media Group’s digital news sites – Gizmodo, Jezebel, The Root, Lifehacker, Kotaku and Jalopnik. Picket lines went up outside the parent company’s offices in New York City on Tuesday morning in what organizers are calling “the first digital media shop to go on an open-ended strike for a fair contract.”

The WGA East’s second contract with Fast Company and Inc. has been unanimously ratified by their 60-member editorial staffs. The two print and digital business news outlets are owned by Mansueto Ventures.

Jewish Currents and the WGA East have reached their first-ever collective bargaining agreement. The new three-year contract was unanimously approved by digital news outlet’s seven-member editorial staff. It will bring all salaries above $60,000 by the end of the contract and provides for 4% pay raises in the first and third years, and 3% in the second.

Chalkbeat and the WGA East have reached their first collective bargaining agreement, which has been unanimously ratified by the digital news organization’s 30-member bargaining unit that includes writers, editors and video producers.

A majority of the 125 writers, producers, hosts, editors and researchers at the iHeartPodcast Network have signed union cards to organize with the WGA East, which is calling on the company to recognize the guild voluntarily as the bargaining representative of its staff.

In an upbeat annual report to members released Friday, WGA East executive director Lowell Peterson said that despite the hardships imposed by the pandemic, “overall our members’ earnings remained remarkably strong.” Freelance film, TV and streaming writers, he wrote, “have mostly remained employed throughout the pandemic,” though “some members certainly lost work opportunities – series that did not go forward, pitches left unmade, potential feature projects stuck in limbo.”

David Robb Labor EditorThe WGA East has launched a Safe Workplace Helpline for members who experience harassment or discrimination.

David Robb Labor EditorCreators and showrunners aren’t mentioned in the industry’s protocols for the safe reopening of TV production, but they’ll play key roles in on-set safety, according to leaders of the WGA East.“There have been some rumors going around that the protocols aim to exclude creators, showrunners and writer/producers from set.

By Dave McNary