Candidate for Council, Online Media Sector
I’m Susan Rinkunas, an independent journalist and a WGAE member since 2017. I’ve been a Council member representing the online media (OM) sector since 2022 and it would be my honor to serve a third term.
If re-elected to Council, I want to focus on getting guaranteed health insurance for our members by aiming the Guild’s political power at state-based universal healthcare—starting in New York, where a bill has majority support in the legislature. I firmly believe that the U.S. needs universal healthcare, and that it won’t happen until a state does it first, and that the WGAE can apply pressure in this area.
A little more about me and my values: As a Council member, I would support members across all industries that the Guild represents as writers fight for better contracts and against exploitative demands for free work. I support new organizing everywhere—whether that’s podcasting, animation, nonfiction, or journalism—because union density is crucial to set better standards for all workers.
I was a member of VICE Union for three and a half years and helped negotiate its second contract in 2018. I helped bargain GMG Union’s third contract, which we won by going on strike in 2022 against Jim Spanfeller’s G/O Media.
The digital media landscape has changed dramatically in my nearly 10 years as a Guild member. Neither of my former shops exist thanks to greedy executives, private equity, and bankruptcy. I myself was laid off twice in about three years. But because of the Guild and the tireless advocacy of online media workers fighting for each other, OM contracts guarantee months of severance and employer-paid healthcare premiums.
Despite the turbulence in digital media, or maybe because of it, OM members continue to negotiate landmark contracts that improve wages, enshrine protections against generative artificial intelligence, and limit their healthcare costs. But what additional protections could OM and other Guild members win in their contracts if they spent less time bargaining over insurance? What else could workers win if they weren’t afraid of losing health coverage while on the picket line?
It’s apparent that we need more journalists asking hard questions at every level and on every beat. I want my fellow freelance OM members to be able to pursue journalism without worrying how they’re going to pay a $1,000+ monthly premium before ever setting foot in a doctor’s office. I’m intimately familiar with this problem after starting a worker-owned publication last year with a fellow reporter. (We’re called Autonomy News and we cover reproductive rights and justice.) I’ve remained a member of the Guild because I believe in unions as a force for good.
The New York Health Act (www.nyhcampaign.org) is a universal healthcare bill that has majority support in the legislature but has yet to pass. Its support in the labor movement includes the New York State Nurses Association, 1199SEIU, 32BJ, Communications Workers of America, and more. I think that coalition should include the WGAE.
Pushing for universal healthcare wouldn’t just benefit OM members, it would also help freelance members in the Broadcast sector and Film and Television members under the MBA who have run out of points for their health plan. I see it as our duty to use the Guild’s political power to improve the lives of our members, which has the pleasant side effect of raising the standard of living for everyone.
I believe we as a Guild should do whatever we can to support the universal healthcare bill in New York, up to and including the Council deliberating whether to create a Political Action Committee (PAC). Our WGA siblings in the West already have a PAC, formed in 2008. In the interim, we could also consider how to create a health plan for freelance members—I’m open to ideas on how to get this done.
I’m not promising that guaranteed healthcare would happen in a two-year term on Council, but I am promising to try. I believe we have to work toward this future not only because we owe it to our members so they can continue their writing careers, but because our collective power could help change the lives of millions of people.
Endorsements
Larry Cohen, Nicole Conlan, Lisa Cullen, Sara David, Christopher Gethard, Elizabeth Godvik, Liz Hynes, Gail Lee, Zachary Lennon-Simon, Sarah Montana, Hamilton Nolan, Celine Robinson, Erica Saleh, Sasha Stewart, Suzanne Weber
Endorse Susan Rinkunas for Council, Online Media Sector
Note: WGAW members who wish to endorse a candidate may follow the process outlined in section G.1.B of the 2026 Election Policy.
