Sam Wheeler, WGA Executive Director speaks during the 2026 Writers Guild Awards New York Ceremony at Edison Ballroom on March 08, 2026 in New York City. Getty Images for Writers Guild of America East While the rest of Hollywood is gearing up for Oscars weekend, leaders of the Writers Guild are preparing for negotiations over a new minimum basic agreement with the Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers which starts on Monday. The two sides will be tackling a number of thorny questions like how to get more writers working and how to address the advance of AI.
But there is one simple question that neither side has an answer to: where the actual negotiations will take place?
That’s because the staff of the WGA West — the folks that handle clerical work like dues payments and residuals — are currently on strike themselves and can often be seen picketing outside the guild’s Fairfax Blvd. headquarters, which makes those offices a slightly awkward place to hold labor negotiations. (Historically, negotiations have taken place at the guild).
The Writers Guild of America West logo outside its headquarters. REUTERS Since the Staff Union strike began last month, the building has been closed off to members and the public and all events have been cancelled — including the March 8 Los Angeles WGA Awards ceremony. (The Guild’s Staff Union, which organized last Spring, is only targeting the WGA West and not the WGA East, whose staff is represented by a different union.)
Staff Union members, which represent around 100 of the WGAW’s 150 employees, have accused the WGAW of unfair labor practices, including surveilling workers for union activity, terminating union supporters and bad-faith bargaining. Given that the WGA is considered the most aggressive of the major guilds, one can understand why they would want to avoid an embarrassing scene, where they are being picketed by their own staff who are accusing them of the same kind of tactics that the WGAW accused the studios of in 2023.
WGAW has denied the accusations. The guild said it has met with the union 20 times since negotiations began last fall and that they will continue to bargain in good faith. The WGAW also said it doesn’t expect its negotiations with the AMPTP to be hampered too much by the Staff Union strike, since those members are not part of the negotiating committee
