The Writers Guild of America’s own staff may soon be on strike, raising new tensions inside Hollywood’s most powerful labor group just weeks before fresh contract talks with major studios.
According to a report by Deadline, the Writers Guild Staff Union announced that 82% of its members voted to authorize a strike. The group accuses guild management of bad faith bargaining and other unfair labor practices. Negotiations for the staff’s first contract began in September after the employees formally organized last spring.
Union leaders claim the Writers Guild of America West has engaged in “surface bargaining, retaliation, and unlawful surveillance.” They recently filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging that a member of the organizing committee was fired for union activity. The staff union did not set a strike date but warned that if management “won’t bargain in good faith, we will see them on the picket line.”
In a statement to Deadline, a spokesperson for the WGA West pushed back, saying the guild has bargained “in good faith” and offered “numerous union protections and improvements.” The spokesperson called public claims to the contrary inaccurate and said the guild “respects the staff’s right to engage in collective activity.”
The possible strike comes at a difficult moment for the Writers Guild, which is preparing to negotiate a new film and TV contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers in March. The current agreement expires May 1. Labor experts note the timing could complicate the guild’s strategy at the bargaining table. Analysts say the tension inside the organization could limit its leverage during high-stakes talks.
The staff union is represented by the Pacific Northwest Staff Union and includes legal specialists, researchers, theater employees, and organizers. Many of them helped coordinate logistics during the 2023 writers and actors strikes, which shut down Hollywood for 148 days and cost the industry billions. The irony of possible picket lines forming inside the guild’s own offices has not gone unnoticed by industry observers.
In other Hollywood union news, SAG-AFTRA is not currently planning a strike and has initiated early negotiations with the AMPTP which are set to take place on February 9, aiming to secure a new TV/theatrical/streaming contract before the existing one expires on June 30. Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland emphasized to Puck that there is ample time through March 6 and beyond to reach a deal in good faith, focusing on AI protections, cost-of-living adjustments, and health insurance, while explicitly not ruling out a strike only as leverage if talks fail—contrasting with the brewing WGA staff strike authorization amid internal tensions. Will this proactive approach help Hollywood avoid a repeat of the 2023 dual strike shutdown?
It would certainly offer a bit of stability as the WGA negotiations loom later in March. We’ll see.
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