WGAE Council Election Message

Fellow Writers and Guild Members,

I’m Ben Rosenblum, an incumbent Councilmember and nonfiction writer for television and film dedicated to transforming our extremely top-down union into a model of true democracy, solidarity, and transparency.

The current strike we’re in is vitally important for our entire Guild, and I genuinely hope we win all of our demands. But for us to achieve optimal success as a union moving forward, we must identify and address any obstacles that get in our way.

In my two-year term on WGAE Council, I’ve unfortunately experienced firsthand how the leadership of our union is actually undermining our full bargaining power and potential that a truly member-driven and democratic Writers Guild of America, East would bring to the table.

Our union exists because of our members and should function because of our members. But it has become clear that behind the scenes of leadership, this core notion is not being abided by. I’m running for re-election to fight for much-needed changes to ensure that it is.

These changes include closing the existing disempowering loopholes on the MBA, removing tiered access to MBA benefits among all genres of film and TV writers, as well as implementing transparency and accountability measures over leadership so that our membership can be adequately informed. By appropriately opening up Council meetings, and making proposed legislation, voting results, and bargaining more transparent, our members can sufficiently and democratically participate in our own union’s operations and politics to ensure our leadership is fighting on behalf of all members.

My experience in leadership has shown that the elected Councilmembers and the top-most unelected staff of our union operate with little to no membership oversight, and it perpetuates a cycle that has ultimately led to actions and inactions from the top that are inherently self-destructive for our entire Guild.

A prominent example of this is our leadership’s willful inaction to combat existing loopholes on the MBA that allow for “scab genres” to proliferate outside the bounds of our master contract, such as uncovered programming for the writers of nonfiction/reality TV, animation, game shows, and comedy/variety.

For those unaware, the AMPTP has tried to erroneously claim they can produce programming for these genres without writers, which is patently untrue, and that the Guild has itself acknowledged as untrue. Yet, ironically, our leadership has allowed for these genres to function as falsely labeled “unscripted” loopholes to the MBA contract that have worsened since the last Writers Strike of 2007.

The most powerful Writers Strike should not seem like it could last indefinitely. Instead, it should force the AMPTP to concede to our demands as quickly as possible because it would actually affect their bottom line to the utmost degree. But as our current strike has exceeded the duration of the already lengthy strike of 2007, it has become clear that our bargaining power needs to drastically improve for our entire union to sustain its effectiveness and all members’ well-being moving forward.

Since the AMPTP can rely on “scab genres,” they are capable of prolonging a strike until we ourselves concede and begin to hollow out our own demands. All the while, the studios can replace missing “struck” programming with “scab genres” whenever they’d like.

And because our leadership has not been sufficiently fighting to obtain MBA coverage for these “scab genres” over the years, they’ve unfortunately allowed for our own union’s bargaining power to dwindle for the current strike and all others to come. That is, unless substantive change is actually fought for and implemented.

Our leadership has been getting away with this self-destructive inaction on combating existing MBA loopholes because they are not sufficiently held accountable by our membership, there is limited oversight and transparency, and there is little to no democratic input and meaningful involvement from our rank and file in the functioning of our union.

I’m sure many members are completely unaware that the prominent reality show “Dancing with the Stars” is a signatory to the MBA. And I’m sure many would be curious why the vast majority of the rest of reality shows are currently not. This would seemingly be notable to most members since reality TV’s lack of MBA coverage undermines our entire union’s bargaining power, and therefore everyone’s ultimate pursuit of improving their own livelihood.

There is a huge disconnect between leadership and membership that hurts our ability to sustain the viability and power of our union as the worker-led institution it should be.

What I’ve found in leadership is that there is a harmful tendency to try to “sell” membership on ideas conjured up within its small, secluded confines. And there is a culture within leadership of obsequiousness, conformity, secrecy, and an intolerance of dissent that makes any necessary change or even questioning of the status quo seem forbidden.

Not to mention, this harmful mentality has unfortunately trickled down to membership where I’ve seen firsthand how leadership has willfully suppressed and censored Guild members from speaking freely and voicing their concerns, even in the slightest, about important issues that matter to them the most, all likely violating many of our basic LMRDA rights as union members.

I am running for re-election to immediately fight to address these extremely serious issues, and to give every WGA member an impactful and rightful voice in our own union during these very precarious and worrisome times.

I will fight to close the existing MBA loopholes to get all uncovered writers for “scab genres” like nonfiction/reality, animation, game shows, comedy/variety, and any others appropriately covered under the MBA. I will fight to institute consistent membership meetings so that our rank and file can have a truly meaningful role in the functioning of our union. I will fight to allow for our union’s politics to become sufficiently transparent so members can understand how our Guild is governed and operated. And most importantly, I will truly act on behalf of our membership and help hold leadership accountable.

If you'd like to read more about my experiences in Council and some of its other internal issues that I plan to address, feel free to check out my candidate statement. I would also love to hear from you with any thoughts, questions, or concerns, and you can connect by emailing me at bmrosenblum@gmail.com.

I hope to be able to continue representing our WGAE membership in Council for another two years to implement these much-needed changes, and I’d be super grateful for your vote.

Regardless of the outcome of this election, I’m looking forward to continually organizing and empowering our rank and file as we work together to strengthen the WGA East into the truly transparent, solidaristic, and democratic union we need it to be in order to face the struggles that lie ahead.