A petition signed by more than 1,250 WGA members, including John Oliver and Seth Meyers, has been sent to PBS calling on the public station to engage with the union on key issues after months of stalling.
“WGA members have waited since July for WGBH, THIRTEEN and PBS SoCal to agree to meet — but the PBS employers didn’t come to the table with their proposals or respond to ours until the end of September, for a contract that was supposed to expire on October 9,” reads the petition, which was delivered Thursday morning to PBS management at the start of contract negotiations for the day.
Among the WGA members who signed the petition are Leo Allen, Joel Kim Booster, Robert Carlock, Anya Epstein, Tom Fontana, Scott Frank, Sal Gentile, Mary Harron, Soo Hugh, Marta Kauffman, Richard LaGravenese, David Mandel, Julie Martin, Glen Mazzara, Stanley Nelson Jr., Michael Rauch, Seth Reiss, Amber Ruffin, Tom Schulman, David Simon, Alec Sokolow, Barry Strugatz, Jim Taylor, Chris Terrio, Anna Thomas, Lilly Wachowski, Geoffrey C. Ward, Beau Willimon and Steve Young.
The WGA represents 150 freelance writers who work at the three top PBS affiliates and is calling on the network to engage meaningfully on the writers’ key issues, which include “full union protections for animation writers; fair compensation for writer-producers; WGA coverage of made-for-new-media programs; and reasonable residual payments for reuse on streaming services.”
“For writers, PBS has always been a cherished friend and teacher,” WGA East president Lisa Takeuchi Cullen said in a statement. “Its programs taught us to love words and develop values like trust, kindness and empathy. So we expect PBS to use the remaining time before the contract deadline to live up to those values.”
“We believe the demands the WGA has presented will allow PBS to succeed in a time when public television is needed more than ever, while ensuring fair treatment for all its writers,” she continued. “Now is not the time for PBS to test the mettle and solidarity of WGA members. We demand a fair contract, now.”
