Writers Guild West Threatens to Cancel Awards Show if Striking Staff Doesn’t Accept Latest Offer

The Writers Guild of America West has threatened to cancel the upcoming awards show if striking staff members don’t accept their “broken final offer,” the Writers Guild Staff Union said on Wednesday, offering an update on the fraught negotiations.

The 115 employees who are members of the Writers Guild Staff Union went on strike last week, and in an update posted to Instagram on Wednesday said negotiations are not going well.

“Rather than return to the bargaining table in good faith, WGAW management asked for a phone call where they told us they will not bargain with us any further, adding that if we do not take their broken last offer by this Friday, Guild management will cancel the 2026 Writers Guild Awards,” the statement read.

“Make no mistake: This is an attempt by WGAW management to drive a wedge between union staff and WGA membership when we should be building unity ahead of MBA negotiations with the AMPTP. We urge guild management to end this strike now.”

The update comes after WGA members joined the striking staffers on the picket line this week, standing in solidarity on Tuesday.

“We would not have survived the 2023 strike without the staffers. They were the first to show up on the picket lines before any writers showed up and they were the last to leave at the end of the day,” WGAW Captain Jackie Penn, who is also a vice chair on the WGAW Committee for Black Writers, told TheWrap on the picket line on Tuesday.

The Writers Guild of America Awards are scheduled to take place on March 8.

Dylan Holmes, co-chair of the union’s bargaining committee, accused the WGA of not negotiating with its own employees in good faith as they would expect of the studios in an interview with TheWrap last week.

“What they’re asking for is perfectly reasonable, and the fact that our own union refuses to give them this sends the wrong message right as we’re about to begin talks with the AMPTP,” added Walker. “We need our union to practice what it preaches.”

The WGSU went public in its efforts to organize last April, but say that over the past six months, the WGAW leadership has not bargained with them in good faith, providing little movement on their counterproposals.

Among the issues the WGSU is looking to address in the contract is protections against the use of artificial intelligence software to surveil employees and monitor performance and just cause protections, including due process through arbitration. The staffers are also calling for union scale wage with larger annual increases than what writers receive in their contract with Hollywood studios, something that the WGSU said is necessary because unlike writers, they do not have agents to negotiate over-scale pay.

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