Writers Guild of America
The
Writers Guild of America (
WGA) is the
collective bargaining representative, or
labor union, for writers in the motion picture and
television industries in the United States. As of
2003, it claims more than 11,000 members nationwide. Though it calls itself a labor union, it serves in many capacities as a professional standards organization and even runs the
WGA script registration service which non-members can use.
In addition to establishing minimum employment standards for its members, the WGA is the final arbiter of
screenwriting credit for film and television programs made under its jurisdiction. Indeed, the issue of proper credit was one of the driving forces behind the creation in 1921 of the Screen Writers Guild, the WGA's predecessor organization. Today, the Guild also provides health and pension benefits for its members, issues the
Writers Guild of America Awards, and runs the
WGA script registration service to help writers prove authorship of their works.
For historical reasons, the WGA is divided into two separate unions, the
Writers Guild of America, East and
Writers Guild of America, west. Although the unions work together in negotiating contracts for writers, there a number of differences between the two, ranging from the significant (different requirements for joining) to the typographical (the "East" branch capitalizes the "E," while the "west" branch uses a lowecase "w".) Until recently, under the terms of the affiliation agreement between the two Guilds, any writer who works in theatrical films was automatically a member of the
Writers Guild of America, west no matter where he or she lives. Recent changes to the East and west constitutions make the division entirely geographic; a writer who lives east of the
Mississippi River belongs to the
East branch, while a writer who lives to the west of it belongs to the
west branch.
The current president of the WGAw is
Patric Verrone. The current vice-president of the WGAw is
David N. Weiss.
In
2004, WGA west was embroiled in a scandal, during which leadership changed more than three different times in only a few weeks. Incumbent President
Victoria Riskin was accused by her opponent Eric Hughes during the
2003 election of using a sham writing contract to maintain her membership status. Hughes was defeated, but his friend and WGA member Ronald Parker filed an official complaint with the Guild and the Department of Labor over the matter and other election irregularities. The Guild launched an internal investigation that concluded the election was proper, but under pressure Victoria Riskin resigned. She publicly blamed the staff for giving her poor legal advice. She was replaced by vice-president Charles Holland, who resigned a few weeks later when questions arose about statements he had made about his college football career and his claim of having secretly served in combat as a Green Beret, something his army records didn't support. After Riskin resigned but before Holland left, the guild board appointed
Daniel Petrie, Jr. as vice-president, and assumed the presidency upon Holland's departure. Petrie had been elected president of the Guild before Riskin.
After Riskin's resignation, the
U.S. Department of Labor investigated the sham contract and concluded that the Guild had in fact knowingly allowed an ineligiable canditate to run. The Guild entered into a settlement by offering to re-run the election under DOL supervision. A new election was held in September 2004 between
Eric Hughes and
Daniel Petrie, Jr.. Hughes accused the union of being run by insiders only for the benefit of famous writers, at the expense of new or little-known writers. Hughes presented a number of documents on his
website, which he alleged proved his accusations.
Petrie won the election by a 71% to 26% margin. (The remaining three percentage points represented votes for write-in candidates, or ballots that were left blank.) Hughes website continues to be updated regularly with additional charges against the Guild, most recently in regard to its alleged mishandling of Foreign Levies payments which was reported in the New York Times [
1] and Variety [
2].
In the first election after the 2004 scandals, all but two candidates for every open position declared allegiance to one of two slates: "Writers United" and "Common Sense."
Art Eisenson, one of the two independent candidates, would later drop out of the race, leaving
David S. Weiss as the lone independent.
Led by animation writer
Patric Verrone, Writers United candidates ran on a platform centered on the need for the WGAw to extend its jurisdiction by spending up to 30% of its budget on organizing reality television, video games, and other areas not generally under Guild jurisdiction. The Common Sense candidates, led by feature writer
Ted Elliott, had a more diverse set of viewpoints, although all agreed that the 30% budget target was inappropriate.
Verrone, the first candidate in Guild history to hire an outside campaign advisor, ran a tightly focused campaign centered on meeting individual Guild members in small groups. After meeting with some 900 WGAw members in a variety of settings, Writers United swept into office by large margin, capturing the presidency, vice-presidency, secretary-treasurership, and all eight open board positions. With one of the highest turnouts of any Guild election, Verrone was elected with 68% of the vote. The lowest vote-getter was
David S. Weiss, who was also the lone remaining candidate not on either slate, leading some observers to predict an era of increased slate focus in Guild politics.
The Writers United victory was also seen by many Hollywood observers as a harbinger of a Guild that would take a harder line in future negotiations with studios.
The WGA also administers the
Writers Guild of America Awards which have honoured screenwriting achievement in various categories since 1949.
In 2006 the WGA announced its list of the "
101 Greatest Screenplays", as voted on by its members. Members had nominated over 1400
screenplays, although technically any produced screenplay was eligible, regardless of era or language. The screenplay for
Casablanca, written by
Julius J. Epstein,
Philip G. Epstein and
Howard Koch, was voted the best.
Woody Allen,
Francis Ford Coppola and
Billy Wilder each had four screenplays in the top 101.
William Goldman,
John Huston and
Charlie Kaufman had three each.
56 of the screenplays were adaptations from other works, including
Casablanca. 60 were dramas, 26 were comedies and 15 were comedy/dramas.
*
WGA screenwriting credit system*
WGA script registration service*
Writing circles*
WGA west official website (wga.org)*
WGA East official website (wgaeast.org)*
List of the 101 Greatest Screenplays*
Writer Action a BBS for Guild Members
