The Writers Guild Has Words for the Mayor of Los Angeles
The WGA hit back at Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass on Thursday after she expressed support for a settlement in the litigation surrounding the Paramount–Warner Bros. Discovery merger.
The guild characterised the position as a false choice — the framing being that a settlement is presented as the pragmatic option when, in the union's view, it isn't the only one available.
The context
Bass joined other California Democratic officials, including Governor Gavin Newsom and Xavier Becerra, in backing a resolution to the dispute. The consolidation of two major studios has been the central labour anxiety in Hollywood for months, on the straightforward grounds that fewer buyers means less leverage for everyone who works for them.
The WGA has consistently opposed the merger.
Why the mayor is in this at all
Los Angeles has been losing production for years to cheaper jurisdictions, and California's tax credit programme has been the subject of an increasingly frantic legislative push in Sacramento. Any official representing the city is caught between wanting studios healthy and wanting them to keep employing people locally, and the two are not currently the same thing.
Politicians want the industry stable. Unions want it competitive. That gap is where this entire fight lives.