Maine Senate Passes Resolution in Support of Writers Guild of America Members on Strike

This week, the Maine Senate approved a resolution, sponsored by Senate President Troy Jackson, to support the Writers Guild of America, whose members have been on strike for the past month. Below is the resolution:

JOINT RESOLUTION SUPPORTING THE WRITERS GUILD OF AMERICA

WHEREAS, the Writers Guild of America West and the Writers Guild of America East, labor unions that represent over 11,500 writers in film and television across the country, are currently without a contract and are on strike; and

WHEREAS, the Writers Guild of America's reasonable demands to the major media companies that employ their members, including The Walt Disney Company, NBCUniversal Media, Paramount Pictures Corporation, Netflix Inc., Apple Inc. and Amazon.com, Inc., have not been met; and

WHEREAS, writers are facing the most comprehensive assault on their compensation and working conditions in a generation, with media companies taking advantage of the industry's transition to global streaming to underpay workers, resulting in writers doing more work for less pay and with less job security; and

WHEREAS, this erosion of writer pay and working conditions has happened while their employers have collected almost $30,000,000,000 in entertainment operating profits each year from 2017 to 2021; and

WHEREAS, without writers, the entertainment industry would not have stories to tell; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED: That We, the Members of the One Hundred and Thirty-first Legislature now assembled in the First Special Session, on behalf of the people we represent, take this opportunity to express our support for the writers of film and television and their contract negotiations.