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| Founded | 1951 |
|---|---|
| Members | 3,770 (2006) |
| Country | United States |
| Affiliation | AFL-CIO, IAWG, UNI, IFJ |
| Key people | Michael Winship [1], President Mona Mangan, Executive Director |
| Office location | New York, NY |
| Website | www.wgaeast.org |
Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) is a labor union representing writers of television and film and employees of television and radio news. The 2006 membership of the guild was 3,770. 1
The Writers Guild of America, East is affiliated with the Writers Guild of America, west. Together the guilds administer the Writers Guild of America Awards. It is an affiliate of both the International Federation of Journalists and the International Affiliation of Writers Guilds.
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History
WGAE had its beginnings in 1912, when the Authors' League of America (ALA) was formed by some 350 book and magazine authors, as well as dramatists. In 1921, this group split into two branches of the League: the Dramatists Guild of America for writers of radio and stage drama and the Authors Guild for novelists and nonfiction book and magazine authors.
That same year, the Screen Writers Guild came into existence in Hollywood, California, but was "little more than a social organization", according to the WGAe's website, until the Great Depression of the 1930s and the growth of the organized labor movement impelled it to take a more active role in negotiating and guaranteeing writers' contractual rights and protections.
In 1933, the ALA and SWG joined forces, and two years later, with passage of the National Labor Relations Act of 1935, called for an election to represent writers of films in collective bargaining agreements; the first such agreement was signed in 1942. Meanwhile, the Radio Writers Guild was formed in New York and became part of the ALA.
A Television Writers Group within the ALA and a separate group, the Television Writers of America, each began representing writers for the nascent television industry beginning in the late 1940s. In 1951, the ALA reorganized into the Writers' Guild of America East and West, in recognition of the growing complexity of representing members in many different fields of entertainment writing. Writers working in motion pictures, TV and radio would be represented by these two new guilds, while the Authors Guild and the Dramatists Guild remained as branches of the ALA to represent print-media writers. The WGAw and WGAE have bargained for writers in movies, TV and radio since 1954. 2 The WGAe became affiliated with the AFL-CIO in 1989, although its sister group WGAw did not join and has not since.
Herb Sargent was the president for fourteen years until his death in 2005. 3
On August 27, 2006, WGAE reached an agreement with the producers of The Daily Show With Jon Stewart, allowing writers on the show to become guild members. 4
2007-2008 strike
On November 2, 2007, both branches of the guild, East and West, called a strike against all television networks and cable channels over writers' share of revenues from DVD releases, Internet, cell-phone network, and other new-media uses of programs and films written by members. The strike vote followed the expiration of the guild's then-current contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. The strike ceased on February 12, 2008.
See also
- Writers Guild of America, west (WGAw)
- Writers Guild of America Award
- WGA screenwriting credit system
- WGA script registration service
- 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America strike
- 1988 Writers Guild of America strike
- 1960 Writers Guild of America strike
- International Affiliation of Writers Guilds (IAWG)
- Writing circles
References
- ^ U. S. Department of Labor
- ^ WGAE official website history
- ^ Hollywood Reporter
- ^ "Daily Show Negotiates Writer's Guild Contract", mediabistro.com (2006-08-28). Retrieved on 12 October 2006.
External links
- WGA East official website (wgaeast.org)
- WGA East Registry (www.wgaeast.org/script_reg/)
- Writer Action a BBS for Guild Members
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 6 August 2008, at 03:35.
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