As the WGA begins its second week of bargaining for a new contract with the AMPTP today, the guild is prepared for a strike, if it comes to that, though that’s by no means a foregone conclusion.
The WGA’s current film and TV contract expires May 1. The WGA West’s most recent annual report shows that as of last March 31, it had amassed a strike fund of nearly $20 million, all of which has been set aside to provide loans or grants to members “adversely affected by a strike.” That’s more than double the $9.2 million it had set aside in a strike fund in advance of the 100-day strike of 2007-08, when more than $3 million in strike loans was distributed to members during and after the walkout.
The WGA West’s constitution provides that two-thirds of its members’ dues shall be used for the guild’s general purposes, and that 80% of the remaining one-third shall be deposited in the Strike Fund.
As of March 31, 2022, that came to nearly $19.7 million, or more than $1 million more than the year before, and three times the roughly $6.5 million that was left in the strike fund in March 2009.
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