For more than two decades, the Writers Guild of America West headquarters has loomed over one of L.A.’s most high-profile intersections. The offices at Fairfax Ave. and Third St. serve not only as a central location for writer members spread across the city but also as a potent symbol to the busloads of tourists that visit the Original Farmer’s Market across the street that L.A. is the home of Hollywood, a dream factory powered in large part by unionized workers.
But for the last several days, that façade has been obscured by a giant inflatable rat. “Scabby the Rat,” as he is fondly called by labor organizations, is a symbol of a labor dispute and especially of alleged union-busting activity.
Marching in circles adjacent to the rat’s toothy leer have been staff members of the WGA West, who launched a strike on Feb. 17 in protest of union management allegedly breaking labor law. A day later, the Writers Guild Staff Union (WGSU) protestors wore dark green union shirts and carried signs emblazoned “Quit breaking the law and my freaking heart!!!” and “What’s disgusting? Union busting!”
The WGA West has denied all allegations of union-busting and unfair labor practices, noting that it voluntarily recognized the union in the spring of 2025 and that it has engaged in 19 bargaining sessions with the union. The Ellen Stutzman-led union, whose negotiations with the 115-member WGSU are being spearheaded by general counsel Sean Graham, publicly released a list of its proposals as well.
Still, the timing is terrible for the union, and the optics of the strike are even worse. On March 8, the WGA West will hold its annual glitzy awards ceremony for members at the J.W. Marriott in downtown L.A., an event that staffers typically work hard on and are invited to attend. The WGA is also said to be less than one month away from starting negotiations with major studios and streamers on the successor agreement to its 2023 film and television contract, which it struck for 148 days to achieve.
Rather than presenting a united front before a momentous negotiation, the strike shows the WGA West in apparent internal disarray and short-staffed leading into a demanding time. And the longer the work stoppage goes on, the more union leadership risks the appearance of preaching one thing and doing another.
During the 2023 strike the union lauded outside labor organizations for their solidarity, especially Teamster truck drivers for refusing to cross their picket lines. Meanwhile, on Tuesday the WGSU, led by co-chairs Missy Davy and Dylan Holmes with negotiations headed by Brandon Tippy, posted to Instagram an email from management, asking whether striking staffers will show up for work. The union alleged that this was “encouraging their own striking staff to scab.”
The WGA West pointed out that the email stated that staffers didn’t need to respond and would not be retaliated against for not working or responding. The union said it had a “legal obligation … to not discriminate against those who choose not to strike, nor those who choose to strike.”
“This is a union that has been at the forefront of labor issues in Hollywood for almost 100 years now and the idea that a union that is so concerned not just about the rights of their membership but especially in the last strike focused so much on solidarity among workers, all of this feels peculiar and disheartening,” says Miranda Banks, a Loyola Marymount University film professor who co-authored the upcoming book Boom to Bust: How Streaming Broke Hollywood Workers.
The union itself seems to recognize this and is limiting opportunities for further demonstrations. On Tuesday the WGA West wrote members that it would be closing its offices “until further notice” and would be canceling previously scheduled contract meetings. Also canceled are screenings, panels, committee meetings and “educational events,” including, THR has learned, a session of the union’s esteemed showrunner training program.
Still, work goes on at the offices, even if the organization is short-staffed. On Feb. 18, chants of “Shame!” broke out as a person that one organizer described as a manager crossed the picket line to enter the building. A member of a separate Hollywood union, a self-described location professional who is a Teamster, was passing by the offices on the way to a haircut. He joined in on the chants, his voice rising above even that of the staffers.
“I’m sad. The Writers Guild taught me labor values and I could have never imagined they would not uphold them,” said Kayley Nagle, a bargaining committee member with WGSU and a digital campaign specialist. “We are now doing what they taught us to do in the 2023 strike. We’re giving them an example of what we were trained and taught to do as labor leaders.”
To be clear, first contract negotiations are always difficult as both parties build a contract from the ground up. The WGA West and WGSU have been at the table since September, which isn’t an unusually long time to be haggling over a deal: Two recent analyses have found that most initial labor contracts take more than a year to reach.
In bargaining both sides remain stuck on just cause provisions, AI and wages, according to union organizers. The WGA in its materials to members has pointed out that staffers already receive annual wage increases and participate in the WGA health fund and pension plan. The union says it has offered proposals “that improve on the existing wages, hours and working conditions of Guild staff.”
But in this case, the WGSU is not only alleging that management isn’t negotiating fast enough or giving enough ground on key issues but that they have actually committed unfair labor practices including surveilling union members, terminating the employment of a union organizer and supporters and bargaining the contract in bad faith — charges that the WGA itself occasionally files against the likes of Warner Bros. Television and Universal Television.
All of this just provides ammunition to the WGA West’s opposition to accuse them of hypocrisy and could weaken the union’s standing ahead of negotiations. The WGA West has long relied on the lock-step unity of members to stage ambitious and aggressive labor actions like the agency campaign that led writers to fire their agents en masse in 2019 or the 2023 strike, when members withheld their labor. If members’ faith in the organization or its leadership is shaken by this episode, the union’s ability to leverage collective action would be compromised.
Already, some union members are taking sides, on the record or off. Publicly, there is a @wgacaptainsforwgsu Instagram page and several members have posted their support to the WGSU Instagram. Wrote one, “WGA leadership needs to end this embarrassing stonewall. Give the staff what they need to help us win a great new contract ourselves!” Added another, “I’m with you all the way. I hate that it has come to this.”
Read the full article here
