William Schmidt, the independent candidate running for president of the WGA West, is firing back at the guild leadership for appointing a committee to investigate members who refused to fire their …
today on his website. “No writer shall enter into a representation agreement whether oral or written, with any agent who has not entered into an agreement with the Guild covering minimum terms and conditions between agents and their writer clients.”
“That’s it. That’s all of it,” he wrote. “Nothing about firing agents. Nothing about one being in violation for not doing so. If leadership wants to amend any Working Rule, they must put the change to a vote before membership, which they haven’t done.action is failing and leadership is flailing. They’ve made no progress with the Big Four. They’ve dropped the lawsuit that they said was going to end packaging as we know it.
“Instead of admitting their own mistakes and moving on, they need scapegoats. Blame me. Or Phyllis Nagy, as they did at all three membership meetings. Or any other fellow Guild member they can find. David Goodman likes to say that the upcoming election is a plebiscite on the ATA action. It’s not. It’s a referendum on leadership and their dangerous and destructive ways of doing business.”
Schmidt is the only WGA member who has openly refused to fire his agent, but insists that he has not, and will not, allow her to procure work or negotiate contracts for him until the dispute with the Association of Talent Agents is resolved. For guild leaders to demand anything more, he says, violates the WGA Constitution.
The guild’s presidential election, in which Schmidt is challenging Goodman and Nagy, is playing out against the backdrop of the guild’s four-month standoff with Hollywood’s talent agencies over packaging fees and agency affiliations with related production entities. The WGA and the ATA haven’t met face-to-face since June 7. Election ballots are due no later than September 16.
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