WGA members vote to expel two members to violate strike rules
The members of the Writers Guild of America voted to maintain the expulsion of two writers accused of writing during the 2023 strike, but to dissolve a public reprimand of a writer who joked on Facebook.
Earlier this year, the WGA board voted to kick Roba Roth and Edward Drake to perform forbidden “writing services”-what the trade union calls “scurf” during the 148-day strike. They appealed, but 54% of the polling membership supported the decision of the board in a count that was closed on Friday.
With a voice of 62% -38%, the members rejected the public disapproval of Tim Doyle, who had had to deal with an accusation of behavior “detrimental to the well -being of the guild” for making an off -color joke. On the 100th day of the strike, Doyle placed a silhouette of a man hung on a tree, in what was meant as a morbid reference to his own suicide.
Doyle apologized for the joke, which some took as a reference to a lynch. The process led to some internal concern that the WGA went too far in the speech of the members.
“It would be nice if the WGA made an attempt to publish this announcement to the industry,” Doyle said in a text on Friday, adding that he hoped that the guild would “want to undo part of the damage in the past 18 months” by the implication that he is racist.
The members also closely maintained the discipline of Julie Bush, a writer who is accused of subjecting a “scurf script” to a non-signer during the strike. Bush received a one -year suspension and forbidden to serve as a strike captain for life. The members voted 52% -48% to refuse her profession.
“I am so grateful to the members who voted for me,” Bush said. “I believe that the proximity of the mood signals that members do not like what happened here. I have never seen a guild mood among 90%, so losing with only 59 votes is useful for me.”
She said she is planning to continue to fight for the legality of the WGA action. “Now we are going to the Ministry of Labor and the NLRB.”
Roth was an executive producer on ‘Sullivan’s Crossing’, a show filmed under Writers Guild of Canada -Leges in Nova Scotia. She was a double WGC member and worked under an exemption with which WGA writers can in certain cases work for non-sign companies. The exemption was terminated at the start of the strike, so she should not have written on the show. Roth argued that she only supervised the chamber of the writers and denied violating the rules. She also argued that under the Constitution a violation should have leaded to a fine, not from removal.
In a statement on Friday, Roth said that she thought it was’ disappointing ‘that WGA board members’ decided to send mass e -mails during the voting round to tip the scale to their advantage and to influence it unfairly what an honest professional process should be. “
“This result will undoubtedly form the standards with which the WGA and his plate continue to work,” she said. “I hope that members will submit their candidacy to run for the WGA board before the deadline of May 15 to tackle these serious problems.”
Drake wrote and directed an independent film, ‘Guns Up’, which was filmed during the strike. He was accused of making incorrect script revisions during filming and refusing to identify a non-member who reportedly rewritten the end. He argued that he made small script changes, which are explicitly not under the jurisdiction of the WGA.
Asked for a response to the mood, Drake sent one Youtube -Clip From the last scene of a classic film: “Forget it, Jake. It’s Chinatown.”
According to the constitution of the Gilde, writers can appeal against any discipline in membership during an annual meeting. The WGA has not held an annual meeting for the past six years, so the board chose to keep an online voice instead.
Bush objected to the process and claimed that the board had no authority to change the appeal process without a constitutional change.
In rough voices, the mood was as follows:
Roth: 778-639 to expel
Drake: 769-652 to expel
Bush: 745-686 to suspend a year, Lifetime Bar van Meer as strike captain, public censorship
Doyle: 915-557 to cancel public censorship
