According to Deadline, the 78th annual Writers Guild Awards will currently only take place on the eastern coast, with the WGA West canceling its ceremony in Los Angeles on March 8 amid the ongoing staff union strike. The event was scheduled for the J.W. Marriott at L.A. Live to coincide with the WGA East’s sister ceremony in New York City. Although this was the plan, WGA West was part of a battle involving the staff union going on strike two weeks ago. The guild set a deadline to end the strike by the end of the day Friday, otherwise the West Coast part of the awards will be cancelled this year.
“We are saddened to share that we have just been informed that, due to the PNWSU (WGAW staff union) strike, the decision has been made to cancel the event on March 8,” a memo sent around town Sunday morning reads via Deadline. “We will let you know if any other event arises from this later this year.”
As per Deadline, WGA West is likely to make a formal announcement on Monday. The WGSU frames the move to cancel the ceremony as a bullying tactic. Still, they have made it clear in previous statements that the guild would not ask its own members to cross another union’s picket line. However writers are very displeased with the issues between their guild and its staff. Last week, dozens of WGA captains joined the staff union’s picket line outside the WGA West headquarters in Los Angeles as a show of solidarity.
“You can’t be labor and be anti-labor,” a WGA member told Deadline Sunday as news spread of the ceremony’s cancellation.
According to Deadline, WGA East and West are two separate entities that occasionally act together; therefore, the East Coast ceremony will not be affected. The WGA East will be trying to accommodate any winners or invitees who planned to attend the West Coast ceremony. The WGA West is setting up to hold another ceremony at a later date with more details to come.
As per Deadline, the WGA East’s staff has been unionized for many years and is not on strike. The west coast staff organized last spring and have been negotiating their first contract with management since September. The WGSU has repeatedly accused WGA West management of bad faith bargaining, claiming that employers have “surveilled workers for union activity, terminated union supporters, and engaged in bad faith surface bargaining, showing no intention to come to an agreement on most of WGSU’s core issues.”