The WGA West is throwing down the hammer, or at least attempting to, with its staff union. After 71 days on strike, WGSU members were notified that they have received their final offer on a first contract from management, the guild said in an email to writers on Tuesday.
“It has been apparent for some time that the Guild and PNWSU/WGSU have been at impasse in bargaining a first staff union contract. Today the Guild made clear to the staff union that the current Guild proposal—sent on April 8—is its final offer,” WGA West leaders wrote in the memo.
The proposal on the table “comes after extensive efforts to reach agreement over 21 bargaining sessions, including 2 full sessions during the staff strike, as well as additional conversations with members of their negotiating committee,” the memo continued.
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Per the note, WGA West leadership will meet with the WGSU on Tuesday night to discuss the offer and “address again why the staff union’s remaining proposals are unworkable.”
Deadline has reached out to the WGSU for comment.
That was far from the end of the message, as the WGAW management went on to detail a few of those untenable asks including a no-strike clause that allows for a work stoppage during the length of the contract if an unfair labor practice is committed, seniority as the exclusive factor in promotion decisions and a “standard union step wage scale.”
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The WGAW also aired a few grievances about the staff’s alleged behavior during the writers’ MBA negotiations, describing several instances where the guild says staff “acted in an aggressive manner completely out of line with how writers have always operated during WGA strikes”.
Per the union, that includes blocking writers’ access to the SAG-AFTRA building (where AMPTP talks were held) and spreading “misinformation” about the guild’s actions toward its staff. The guild also accuses some WGSU members of actions that it says “have crossed the line into personal intimidation and physical violence.”
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“Staff union strikers have targeted [executive director] Ellen [Stutzman], showing up at her home in groups and over multiple days in a row, returning up to five times per day,” the memo says. “Most of these actions are unprotected under federal labor law; some are illegal, and the attempted intimidation of the Guild’s executive director at her home is absolutely unacceptable.”
The WGAW memo does not mention any disciplinary actions against staff for such behavior.