The WGA West‘s striking staff will be booted off their health insurance plans on Wednesday, more than six weeks into their work stoppage and just days after delivering a so-called “strike-ending” proposal to management.
WGSU members were notified via an email from union leaders on Tuesday afternoon, after several workers found messaging on their internal employee portal to indicate their coverage would end April 1, sources tell Deadline.
“This is just the latest attempt by management to bust our union and break our strike. Our resilience has never been more important,” the email read.
The staff union has laid the blame for this latest development at the feet of guild leadership, but the WGAW insists that this is purely an administrative obstacle that management can’t overcome.
“As of April 1st, WGAW employees who receive health coverage on a month-to-month basis and have been on strike since February 17th no longer meet PWGA Health Fund eligibility requirements under the plan’s rules. Striking employees can elect COBRA continuation coverage if they wish to be covered by the PWGA Health Fund in April. The WGAW cannot make contributions on behalf of staff employees who did not work in March and have no earnings,” a spokesperson for the WGAW said in a statement Tuesday.
As the WGSU pointed out in a public statement this afternoon, many writers (who share a health insurance fund with the staff) were able to maintain their coverage during the 2023 strike. This is because writers have to meet an annual income threshold to maintain eligibility, while staff eligibility is determined by monthly hours worked, according to the guild.
This is just the latest bump in the road on a very rocky path toward a deal for the WGA West and its 115-member staff union, which organized last year and has been attempting to negotiate its first contract since September.
Deadline understands that the WGSU hasn’t heard from management about the latest proposal. We hear that western executive director Ellen Stutzman has met with the staff union’s leadership twice since the WGA’s own negotiations with the AMPTP began on March 16. In those conversations, she made it clear “what the path to a deal looks like,” one guild source says.
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In their statement to Deadline on Tuesday, the guild spokesperson added: “The Guild has negotiated a contract with the staff union that offers generous economic improvements and workplace protections that are among the best for any union staff in Los Angeles. Over the past two weeks, at the staff union’s request, the Guild met with leaders of the WGSU bargaining team and outlined the path to a deal. The Guild’s offer—which is comprehensive— remains on the table and would end the strike if accepted by the WGSU.”
Deadline hears there’s still some wiggle room on the March 11 deal that the guild offered staff, but sources say there’s no chance management will accept the latest proposal from the WGSU, due to “outstanding issues that would have made it irresponsible for management to accept,” including ability to strike midway through the contract.
Amid the drama, the WGA East and West continue to bargain on a joint 2026 contract with the AMPTP. Not much has emerged on the status of those talks, but we hear things are going quite well, all things considered.
