Candidate for Council, Film/TV/Streaming Sector
At the top of the Writers Guild headquarters in New York is a roof deck where our union’s “victory” parties are held.
A quick glance at the Guild’s Instagram page may help clarify for the unaware how many “victories” we are inundated with annually.
The Guild constantly “wins” things like “voluntary recognition,” “tentative agreements,” “unionization,” and sometimes, years later, an eventual contract ratification to finally begin collective bargaining.
Not to mention, we “win” strikes.
We’re so good at “winning” that it can be overwhelming to the average member. Luckily, our union leadership is there to inform us about what it all means.
And what better way for them to do so than by inviting our members to a spellbinding, luxurious roof deck party at the top of our very own HQ.
The unelected leaders, Guild staff, coordinate the ordeal and supply members with sufficient indulgences and pep talks to ensure we’re all on the same page with how “victorious” we really are. There’s “free” food and drinks to seduce us, a beautiful walled-garden centerpiece to relax us, and an exquisite arrangement of comfortable deck chairs to lounge in while the occasional elected leader or influential figure in the Guild sways us to follow their lead with an inspirational speech.
And when the production has settled down a bit, there’s an exquisite view of what the West side has to offer. If you can overlook the barges, construction, and Holland Tunnel traffic, you’ll see the Freedom Tower, the Hudson River, and with a long squint, maybe the Statue of Liberty — all from a modest fourteen stories up.
With so many celebratory parties, one can only imagine the value of having such a suitable amenity at the top of our office space to really take advantage of all those special “victorious” occasions.
I’ve heard the reason why the Guild has held onto this space for over a decade, even with a rent that costs us around $1 million dollars in members’ dues money annually, is because of this beautiful rooftop.
The view of the 4th of July fireworks out of the Hudson from our rooftop’s vantage point must be incredible. I can only imagine it’s even better than the skyscrapers and taller buildings surrounding ours because they probably see too much, whereas, we see just the right amount.
I’ve never attended a viewing of the fireworks at our Guild’s rooftop, and I’m not sure if our members are ever invited. Perhaps it would’ve been a nice thing to do on the 250th Anniversary of American Independence this year. But then again, the grand finale was cut short due to a fire on the bridge, and the Guild probably would say that it’s best our members didn’t have to deal with that.
I’ve attended my fair share of these “victory” parties for over a decade because I’ve been trying to help the WGA East in their attempt to organize the nonfiction genre of television and film that I work in. The “victories” have unfortunately led nowhere, and oftentimes cause longtime rank-and-file organizers to become disillusioned and leave the efforts altogether.
Luckily for the Guild, there is always a fresh pool of nonfiction television and film writers to take their place. It’s been a vicious cycle.
The Guild has been pursuing a horrendously shortsighted and protracted organizing strategy with no realistic vision for longterm success. They’ve unfortunately pursued this due to their own institutional reasons and self-preservation, not for the members, as I’ve outlined in prior Candidate Statements. As leadership, the Guild itself, and many members admit, the organizing campaign should orient itself around implementing all writers of all genres of film and television onto the MBA. I’ve documented these issues with the WGA’s organizing strategy in my prior candidate statements, and I encourage you to read them for more details.
After becoming disillusioned with the Guild’s organizing strategy myself, instead of abandoning the efforts, I decided to figure out what was going on. But when I started to question things to leadership and staff, I wouldn’t get any clear answers. This prompted me to run for Council to investigate what was really happening behind the scenes of the governing body of our union, and I was fortunate to win a Council seat in 2021.
I was a Council member from 2021-2023, which fell during the “uniting” Constitutional amendment vote, and the “historic” strike of 2023, which we supposedly “won.” It’s still unclear to me what that really means given the current state of our industry and careers.
Among the numerous anomalies I observed, I became aware during the strike that the Guild does not have a strike fund, but a strike “loan” fund. Instead of members getting paid a modest amount for their striking every day from a fund built through members’ own dues money, they are only able take out a loan from the Guild that they have to pay back. Many unions have a dedicated strike fund. It seems obvious why we should too.
The Guild’s funds, also known as our membership’s funds, are integrated into a complicated web of lucrative and unclear investments. Leadership oftentimes utilizes the membership’s funds for major expenditures without our consent.
For example, the WGA has recently initiated a major federal lawsuit that will likely require the use of millions of dollars from our own membership’s funds, and no votes or broad discussions on the matter with membership have occurred. This unfortunately contradicts the very first line of their own Complaint’s Introduction, which states: “Film and television writers bring this action to stop the proposed merger of Paramount and its rival Warner Bros.”
Their suit also seems to ride the coattails of the ongoing Attorney General suit which covers the very same matter. It appears to unfortunately be used as another means to host a “victory” party on the roof deck to impress our members.
To be clear, I bring these issue up not to cause harm to our union or the ongoing suit our leadership has initiated — but it is in fact the opposite. I bring these issues up, as I’ve done in prior elections, to help our membership recognize the serious issues at hand, and the utter lack of democracy, transparency, and solidarity in our own union that is holding us all back.
I am running for Council to not only help elucidate the major issues I have found to exist, but to help us all see what is possible for our union to become.
*Due to time constraints, I will be providing further information and updates continuing this statement at my website (benjamin-rosenblum.com) and the Writers Guild Autonomous Rank-and-File Caucus website (wgarc.org).
**The WGARC will be introducing a new publication: “the Arc”. Stay tuned for updates.
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