More than 1,250 members of the Writers Guild of America East and the Writers Guild of America West signed a petition supporting freelance writers seeking a new contract with GBH in Boston, the WNET Group in New York and PBS SoCal in Los Angeles.
The petition, which is addressed to the stations’ CEOs and was made public Thursday, was signed by documentary filmmakers Stanley Nelson Jr. and Lynn Novick, commercial television hosts John Oliver and Seth Meyers, and Geoffrey C. Ward, who wrote for Ken Burns series including The Vietnam War, Jazz and Baseball.
The petition was also signed by people who work for national public TV series, including American Experience, American Masters, Frontline, Nova, Great Performances and Nature. Other signees include people who work on the children’s programs Donkey Hodie, Rosie’s Rules, Arthur, Cyberchase, Lyla in the Loop and more.
“PBS writers create award-winning, educational, and engaging content that is essential to PBS’s mission to inform the American public,” the petition says. “Unfortunately, the vital role these writers play in maintaining the high standards of public television is not being reflected in management’s approach to ongoing negotiations.”
The petition says WGA members have been waiting since July for station leaders to agree to meet. The stations “didn’t come to the table with their proposals or respond to ours until the end of September, for a contract that was supposed to expire on October 9,” it says.
The existing contract has been in effect since July 2019. GBH, WNET and PBS SoCal all declined to comment on the ongoing negotiations.
The petition says management “has yet to meaningfully engage with the Guild’s most important proposals, including full union protections for animation writers; fair compensation for writer-producers; WGA coverage of made-for-new-media programs; and reasonable residual payments for reuse on streaming services. We stand united in support of all of the WGA’s proposals. We urge you to take these negotiations seriously and come to a fair deal.”
The unions seek to increase the number of workers covered by the collective bargaining agreement. The current agreement does not cover writers on public TV’s animated shows or those working on PBS’ made-for-streaming content, among other groups.
In a news release, WGA East President Takeuchi Cullen said, “We expect PBS to use the remaining time before the contract deadline to live up to those values. We believe the demands the WGA has presented will allow PBS to succeed in a time when public television is needed more than ever, while ensuring fair treatment for all its writers. Now is not the time for PBS to test the mettle and solidarity of WGA members. We demand a fair contract, now.”