WGA President Calls on Netflix, Comcast Shareholders to Reject Executive Pay Packages

thewrap.com:

Writers Guild of America is opening up a new front against the studios as its strike continues, as WGA West President Meredith Stiehm sent an open letter to Netflix and Comcast shareholders calling on them to reject the pay packages for those companies’ top executives that are up for a vote.

Netflix is set to have its annual shareholders meeting on June 1, with Comcast, parent company of NBCUniversal, holding its shareholder meeting on June 7.

Over the past month, the WGA has made studio CEOs a major target in its strike, releasing infographics that outline the combined $773 million in pay received by the top executives at Hollywood legacy and streaming studios, including Netflix former co-CEO and current executive chairman Reed Hastings ($40.8 million) and co-CEO Ted Sarandos ($38.2 million) and Comcast CEO Brian Roberts ($30 million).“Approval of this compensation package is inappropriate in light of the ongoing WGA writers’ strike and the associated risks that Comcast executives are creating for investors,” Stiehm wrote to Comcast shareholders. “Shareholders should send a message to Comcast that if the company could afford to spend $130 million on executive compensation last year, it can afford to pay the estimated $34 million per year that writers are asking for in contract improvements and put an end to this disruptive strike.”Since the WGA strike began at the start of May, the guild has moved beyond picket lines in front of studios in order to dial up the pressure on studios to return to the negotiating table.

Among its most effective tactics has been a grassroots network among members to identify productions that are still running during the strike and shut them down with picket lines.