Workers Make the ‘Write’ Choice Again: Choose WGAE Twice in One Week
Employees who write and produce nonfiction TV shows, including “Monsters Inside Me,” “Samantha Brown’s Great Weekends” and “Worst Cooks in America” for the production company Optomen Television, voted to be represented by the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE).
This is the second time this week workers chose WGAE. The comedy writers at the Onion News Network (ONN) chose the union on Monday. Employees at three other nonfiction TV production companies also voted recently for WGAE representation. First contract negotiations at two of the companies, Atlas Media and Lion Television, are set to begin Aug. 4 and Aug. 8, respectively.
WGAE President Michael Winship says:
We are excited that the talented people of Optomen have voted to join the Writers Guild, East. Theirs is the latest in a series of Guild election victories in the realm of non-fiction television. We look forward to working with them and to continue reaching out to the many creative men and women of non-fiction production.
The National Labor Relations Board election at Optomen took place in December 2010 but a final vote count was hung up in procedural delays.
Writers Guild to Honor Gilroy, Pryor and Television Archives
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Frank Gilroy has gained success as a writer in television, film, theater and print. He wrote for almost every show in TV’s so-called Golden Age, including “Playhouse 90,” “Omnibus” and “Studio One.”
His plays include the Pulitzer Prize-winner “The Subject Was Roses” and the award-winning “Who’ll Save The Plowboy?” An independent moviemaker, he wrote and directed “Desperate Characters,” which won a prize at the Berlin Film Festival.
Now his colleagues in the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) will honor him with the union’s Ian McLellan Hunter Award for Lifetime Achievement in Writing. WGAE President Michael Winship praised Gilroy, saying:
Frank Gilroy’s stunning body of work, with its sure and poignant grasp of the human condition, would alone make him a worthy recipient. But in addition he has been a visionary and pioneer, forging a path for all the independent filmmakers and storytellers who have followed him.
Established in 1992 in memory of the late Ian McLellan Hunter, the award is presented to a WGAE member for his or her lifetime body of work as a writer in motion pictures or television. The Hunter award is one of the three top WGAE awards that will be presented at the 63rd annual Writers Guild Awards, Feb. 5 in New York City. For more information, call 212-767-7812 or visit the WGAE website here.
Lion Television Writers, Producers Join Writers Guild, East
Some 100 writers, producers, associate producers and researchers at Lion Television voted this week to join the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE). This is the third victory for WGAE in its recently launched effort to help workers in nonfiction TV programming form a union. These new union members produce shows such as “Cash Cab” for Discovery Network, “Megadrive” for MTV and “History Detectives” and “America Revealed” for PBS.
The workers voted for WGAE despite a long, aggressive anti-union campaign by the company. Employees said they wanted to become union members to gain benefits like health care, pension, improved compensation and reasonable working hours.
Writers Guild Honors the Best of the Year
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The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) and Writers Guild of America, West earlier this month honored the year’s best writers for film, television, radio, news, promotional material and video games during simultaneous ceremonies in New York and Los Angeles.
Alan Zweibel received the WGAE Ian McLellan Hunter Award for lifetime achievement in writing. The award, named after a longtime WGAE member, is given in honor of a body of work as a writer in motion pictures or television.
One of the original writers on “Saturday Night Live,” Zweibel has won multiple Emmys and other awards for his work in television, including, “It’s Garry Shandling’s Show,” “Monk,” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” He co-wrote the screenplays for “Dragnet” and “The Story of Us.”
WGAE President Michael Winship said:
[Alan Zweibel's] eclectic career and comic grasp of life have delighted audiences for more than three decades. We’re all delighted that his talent is being honored by his fellow Guild members.
SAG, NATCA and WGAE Elect Top Officers
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The Screen Actors (SAG) and National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) elected new leadership teams recently and the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) re-elected their top officers.
Actor Ken Howard was elected as SAG’s president in a mail ballot, with results announced yesterday. Amy Aquino was elected secretary-treasurer. Howard and Aquino succeed Alan Rosenberg and Connie Stevens, respectively, and begin their two-year terms immediately.
Howard pledged to strengthen the union’s bargaining power:
“I campaigned on the promise that I’d do everything in my power to strengthen our position at the bargaining table by building a greater unity with [American Federation of Television and Radio Artists] AFTRA and the other entertainment unions, and that’s exactly what I intend to do. Despite the sharp differences that those of us active in Guild affairs sometimes have over strategy and tactics, we need to continually remind ourselves that we’re all on the same team, fighting for the same thing—and by pulling together, we’ll only grow stronger.”
NATCA chose Paul Rinaldi, an 18-year veteran air traffic controller from the control tower at Washington Dulles Airport, as president in a runoff election. Rinaldi, who has served as NATCA’s executive vice president since 2006, will take office on Oct. 17 to begin his three-year term. He will succeed Patrick Forrey.
The runoff election was held because no candidate won the required 50 percent-plus one majority in the first balloting, which was announced on July 31. NATCA Executive Vice President Patricia Gilbert won a clear majority and took office Sept. 1.
Rinaldi said he plans to make sure the nation’s air traffic controllers have a voice in the workplace:
Throughout my career, I’ve made it my mission to further the goals of this union and I’m not stopping now. We’ve had a difficult last three years, but we’ve persevered. I look forward to ensuring that our members always have a voice and, just as important, that the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] always listens.
Writers Guild to Honor ‘Doubt’ Writer and Committee to Protect Journalists
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This weekend, the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) will present its highest awards to an international organization to protect the freedom of the press and to a playwright whose latest play became an Academy Award nominated movie.
The 61st Annual Writers Guild Awards will take place today simultaneously in New York City and in Los Angeles. John Oliver, correspondent on “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart,” will host the New York ceremony at the Hudson Theatre.
WGAE, which represents writers in motion pictures, television, cable, new media and broadcast news, will give its Evelyn F. Burkey Award to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). The award recognizes contributions that have brought honor and dignity to writers everywhere. CPJ is an independent nonprofit organization that promotes press freedom worldwide by defending the rights of journalists to report the news without fear of reprisal.
Says WGAE President Michael Winship:
In a world where freedom of the press is so often suppressed and its practitioners threatened, even killed, the CPJ stands in defense of the lives and liberty of those writers around the planet who so valiantly struggle to bring us the truth.
Past recipients of the Burkey Award include: Walter Bernstein, Martin Scorsese, the Museum of Television & Radio, Vaclav Havel and David Brown.
