The WGA East has unveiled the candidates for its upcoming election of 20 council seats, which will mark the guild’s first vote since it was restructured around three distinct work sectors.
The Sept. 15 election will divide governance of the guild among 12 members from the Film/TV/Streaming sector representing writers of narrative scripted movies and TV series; five from the online Media sector covering digital news and media writers; and three from the Broadcast/Cable/Streaming sector covering broadcast and cable news programming.
The governing body for the Writers Guild of America East also includes five officer positions: president, secretary-treasurer and three vice presidents, representing one from each work sector. online and mail-in voting begins Sept. 1 and ends Sept. 15 at 5 p.m. ET.
The election follows the compromise agreement reached in April to address the WGA East’s rapid growth in recent years through its success in organizing digital media and digital news operations. But that growth eventually stirred some tension among the WGA East’s bedrock members, namely showrunners and screenwriters. There were concerns about pressure on the guild benefits from new members who make far less than successful showrunners and screenwriters. There were also worries that if the WGA East membership became largely digital, more showrunners and screenwriters would take up the option to join the WGA West in Los Angeles.
The WGA East unveiled the candidates presented, as usual, in an order determined by a drawing.
Running for VP from the broadcast/cable news sector:
Matt Nelko
Philip Pilato
Kathy McGee
The single VP candidate from the online media sector:
Sara David
Candidates vying for six council seats from the film/TV/streaming sector:
Erica Saleh (i)
A.M. Homes (i)
Monica Lee Bellais (i)
Gina Gionfriddo (i)
Gene Koprowski
Tian Jun Gu (i)
Kaitlin Fontana (i)
Candidates for three council seats in the broadcast/cable news sector:
Gail Lee (i)
Justin Raffael DiLauro
Elizabeth Godvik
Candidates for two council seats in the online media sector:
Susan Rinkunas
Jessica Schulberg
(i) denotes incumbent
