According to The Hollywood Reporter, writers at member stations WGBH, THIRTEEN and PBS SoCal have threatened to stop working if a new deal isn’t met by the end of their contract on November 21 at 11:50 p.m. Eastern time. On Monday, strike authorization votes were released by participating unionized staffers who unanimously supported staging a work stoppage if an agreement isn’t met with the management and their representatives. 83% of members from the bargaining unit hold 94 staffers at the PBS member stations WGBH, THIRTEEN and PBS SoCal.
The Writers Guild of America East’s council and the Writers Guild of America West’s Board had voted to proceed with the strike authorization vote. While the negotiation cycle is in progress, the union’s dealmakers will attempt to extend full union protections to animation writers, boost wages for staffers, place made-for-streaming projects under union jurisdiction and establish “reasonable residual payments” from streaming.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the union announced that writers on 20 animated series not covered under the contract have signed an agreement to cross the picket line if their PBS colleagues call a strike. These shows include Molly of Denali, Alma’s Way, Cyberchase and many others.
“Writers Guild members at PBS would much rather end the week with a fair and equitable contract than with a strike,” WGAE president Lisa Takeuchi Cullen (The Endgame) said in a statement on Monday. “But they are also willing to do what is necessary to reach an agreement that reflects their working conditions and meets their very reasonable demands.”
The union began applying pressure back in late October with a petition to the management complaining about a slow negotiation process and calling for a “fair and equitable” deal. More than 1,250 union members signed the petition. These signatures included members such as Seth Meyers (Documentary Now!, Saturday Night Live), Amber Ruffin (Key and Peele, The Amber Ruffin Show), David Simon (We Own This City, The Plot Against America) and John Oliver (Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, The Lion King).