While accepting the award for Best Male Actor in a Comedy at the SAG-AFTRA-hosted Actors' Awards ceremony, Seth Rogen called out the Writers Guild for forcing its own staff union to strike rather than agreeing to a first union contract. The comments come after the Writers' Guild (WGA) canceled its own award show on March 8th due to its staff union's strike.
"Wow, what an honor, what an award — this is a great awards show!" Rogen exclaimed on stage. "They got food and drinks and shit, this is incredible. It's not 100 million degrees in here, wonderful! You were able to pay your own employees enough to keep the awards show from being canceled — take notes, WGA."
Last year, staff at the Writers Guild of America voted to unionize. However, for nearly a year, the Writers Guild has dragged its feet on agreeing to reaching a first contract. Faced with little other option, the staff union went out on strike on February 17th.
Last week, the leadership of the Writers Guild cancelled its high-profile award show. The staff union said that the cancellation of the award show was designed to put pressure on the union.
"Rather than return to the bargaining table in good faith, WGA management asked for a phone call where they told us they will not bargain with us any further, adding that if we did not take their last, best, and final offer by [last] Friday, that Guild Management would cancel the 2026 Writers Guild Awards", wrote the staff union on its instagram page.
At a time, when the Writers Guild is gearing up for major contract talks with studio and preparing to fight Paramount's proposed takeover of Warner Brothers, many union activists are upset that the Writers Guild Management is playing hardball.
“Make no mistake: this is an attempt by WGA management to drive a wedge between WGSU and WGA membership when we should be building unity ahead of MBA [Minimum Basic Agreement] negotiations with the AMPTP [Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers],” wrote the staff union. “We urge Guild management to end this strike now".
