Writers Guild of America West President David Goodman has been easily reelected in a race that highlighted divisions in the union’s handling of a long-running dispute with agents.
Goodman, a 56-year-old showrunner for Fox TV series “The Orville,” defeated Oscar-nominated film writer Phyllis Nagy, who led a dissident campaign against him and other union leaders, citing a lack of progress in negotiations to end unpopular industry practices. Goodman received 4,395 votes compared with Nagy’s 1,282 votes.
Her defeat gives Goodman and his supporters an important boost and diminishes the pressure to bring a swift resolution to a standoff that has captivated Hollywood, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The dissidents did not win any executive seats or any of the eight open board seats despite a strong show of support from prominent writers such as Ava DuVernay and Ryan Murphy.
The election served as a referendum on the union’s tactics for combating agency practices, Goodman said in an interview.
“The high margin of the victory for me and the people I was running with is a sign that the membership wants us to continue with this fight and with the strategy we are pursuing,” Goodman told The Times.
On Monday night, Nagy and other dissident candidates that ran on the “WGA Forward Together” slate congratulated Goodman and those who were elected.
“Elections crucially give voice to opposing points of view, and while our strategies may differ, our goals are the same: to serve the best interests of our fellow members,” the statement said. “We remain committed, passionate advocates for our Guild who believe that far more unites us than divides us.”
The conflict kicked off in April when the WGA — objecting to several common but controversial agency habits — instructed its members to fire talent agents who had not signed a new union-proposed code of conduct, one that replaced a 43-year-old agreement, according to The Times.
At the time, writers voted by a 95% margin in support of the code which barred packaging — lucrative fees that agencies collect for assembling talent on TV shows instead of paying the usual 10% commission — and so-called affiliated production activities. The union argued such practices create inherent conflicts of interest and give agents less of an incentive to help their writer clients. Agents argued that conflicts can be managed and that writers often benefit from packaged deals.
After talks with the Associations of Talent Agents collapsed, the union began negotiating with individual agencies. More than 70 firms agreed to the union’s terms, but none of the largest agencies have signed on as the conflict has played out in court.
Last April, the union sued four large talent agencies in state court, only to request its lawsuit be dismissed months later. Meanwhile, in June and July, three talent agencies — Creative Artists Agency, United Talent Agency and WME — filed lawsuits in federal court, alleging the union violated antitrust laws. The union filed counterclaims.
The protracted litigation and the lack of continued negotiations with the ATA have been criticized by some members of the union, including Nagy.