WGA & SAG-AFTRA To Rally For California Bill That Would Grant Unemployment Insurance To Strikers
deadline.comThe Writers Guild and SAG-AFTRA will rally on Thursday at Amazon Studio in Culver City to highlight their push a bill that would provide unemployment insurance to striking workers in California.
Striking writers and actors in New York and New Jersey are already eligible to receive unemployment benefits after 14 days on the picket line, but not in California.
Senate Bill 799, if it makes it through the Legislature and is signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, would change that. It passed through the Assembly Insurance Committee last week and the Legislature has until September 14 to send it to the governor’s desk for signature.
WGA West President Meredith Stiehm and SAG-AFTRA Secretary-Treasurer Joely Fisher, who spoke before the Insurance Committee last week in Sacramento in support of the bill, will be among the speakers at tomorrow’s picket and rally, which will get underway at 11 am. “Writers have had to rely on strike loans from our union, donations, philanthropy, and second and third jobs to pay for their basic needs since May 2,” Stiehm told the committee. “Four months without work is emotionally brutal and financially disastrous.
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