The Writers Guild of America West has voluntarily recognized a union formed by its own staffers after a card count revealed that the majority of the bargaining unit favored organizing.
The screenwriters’ labor group gave the green light to all non-supervisory staffers to join the Pacific Northwest Staff Union after the count revealed 81 percent of the bargaining unit supported the move, the Writers Guild Staff Union announced on Tuesday. One hundred fifteen staffers who work in departments from legal to communications to residuals will join the PNWSU, which also represents staffers at the LA County Federation of Labor and several SEIU Locals.
“We have an agreement on our first demand, and we’re excited to take this important step towards having a voice in improving our workplace and organizing without fear of retaliation,” WGA West operations coordinator and union organizer Doug MacIsaac sad in a statement. “We’re happy to be able to advocate for ourselves and look forward to negotiating our first collective bargaining agreement.”
In a letter to union members on Tuesday, the WGA West board of directors said, “We heartily congratulate the staff on their decision to form a union. The right to organize and collectively bargain are central tenets of our organization.”
The card count marked the culmination of an effort that began in 2023, during the 148-day writers’ strike. Thrown together on picket lines and at events — in some cases, for the first time — staffers began talking and coalescing around the idea of forming a union. It wasn’t the first time: Union staff had formed an independent union in 2007-2008, during a previous writers’ strike; however, that union was eventually decertified in 2012, leaving staffers without a labor contract.
After years of conversations, the group began collecting union cards around April 8 and continued up until Tuesday’s card count.
“I am honored to be a part of the historic formation of the WGSU and excited for all the possibilities ahead,” said 25-year employee of the WGA West Genevieve Gonsal, a contracts coordinator and member of the organizing group. “Here’s to solidarity, progress, and the next chapter.”
The effort hasn’t been all smooth sailing: The organizing group has alleged that the WGA West — itself a union that occasionally alleges employer wrongdoing — had engaged in “union-busting,” or attempts to thwart the union. According to a representative of PNWSU, before the organizing group went public with its efforts, members of management pulled select staffers into their offices and questioned them about union activity. Staffers were informed that if they unionized, there could be layoffs or cut benefits.
Two days later, Fátima Murrieta, a former representative/organizer of the union who was an organizing committee member of the Writers Guild Staff Union, was terminated from her job in a move the representative found suspicious.
In a statement, a representative for the WGA West said, “A staff member was recently terminated for cause. No Guild employee has been terminated for union activity. The Guild supports the staff’s right to organize and collectively bargain and recognized the staff union in a week.”
On April 22, the day that the group went public with its efforts to organize the workplace, supportive staffers wore the black tee shirts they had been given to identify them as WGA employees during the 2023 strike — along with buttons emblazoned with the name of their organizing group, the Writers Guild Staff Union.
The union seemingly moved swiftly to address the unionization push at that point. By the end of the week, organizers were reporting that both sides had come to an agreement over the terms of a card check.
Now, the Writers Guild Staff Union is set to survey its members on priorities and elect a bargaining team before negotiations over a first contract begin. All of which means that the Writers Guild of America has two big negotiations on the horizon: Its 2026 TV/theatrical negotiation for its writer members and its first contract negotiation with its own staff.
“Working for a union has made me realize just how important having one is,” online services coordinator Jake Houlihan said in a statement prior to Tuesday’s card count. “A workplace with transparency, a living wage, equity and unity will allow us to be that much better for both ourselves AND our members.”
April 29, 5:52 p.m. Updated with WGA West statement.
