WGA: 28 writers quit during strike

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/film/news/e3i6b913c786b0131f9ebe5750bd3c33a03

By Leslie Simmons

April 18, 2008
In a post-strike missive, WGA leaders on both coasts sent out a joint letter Friday to its membership revealing the names of 28 members who resigned from the union during the 100-day strike.

"In the face of enormous personal and financial hardship on the part of many, you sacrificed in the knowledge that your refusal to work would reap benefits not only for yourselves but countless others in the creative community, now and in the future," WGAW president Patric Verrone and his counterpart in the east, Michael Winship, said in a statement. "Yet among the many there were a puny few who chose to do otherwise, who consciously and selfishly decided to place their own narrow interests over the greater good."

The 28 writers elected to file for financial core status, in which writers resign from the union, but still pay a percentage of the dues but do not face fines from the WGA for working during the strike. Covered under the National Labor Relations Act, the WGA must still represent fi-core writers in bargaining and the writers do not lose any rights under their contract.

But Verrone and Winship sharply criticized the decision by those writers, writing they "must be held at ar's length by the rest of us and judged accountable for what they are strikebreakers whose actions placed everything for whic we fought so hard at risk."

A Web site link was included in the letter to the WGA West's Web site publicly listing 21 West Coast fi-core writers, while the WGA East chose to make their list of seven writers accessible only to members through their log-in. The majority of the 28 have worked on daytime soap operas, including "The Bold and the Beautiful," "Days of Our Lives" and "All My Children." (Read the full letter) http://www.wga.org/subpage_member.aspx?id=2827

Listed for the WGAW were: Maria Arena, Marlene Poulter Clar, John F. Cosgrove, Paula F. Cwikly, Clem Egan, Barbara J. Esensten, Jeanne M. Grunwell, Dena Higley, Mark Christopher Higley, Meg Kelly, Michelle Poteet Lisanti, Terry Meurer, Shawn Morrison, James E. Reilly, John Ridley, Hogan Sheffer, John F. Smith, Darrel R. Thomas Jr., Gary Tomlin, Janeen A. Vogelaar, Garin Wolf.

The WGAE members included: Pricilla Kay Alden, James Harmon Brown, Michael Conforti, Victor Gialanella, Josh Griffith, Frances Myers and Pete T. Rich.

Reps for some listed could not be immediately reached.

As result of their actions, the 28 writers can no longer vote in the guild's elections, run for guild office, attend meetings and other events or participate in the WGA awards.