WGA West Members Paid Record Dues In Year Preceding Strike, Financial Report Shows
deadline.comWriters Guild of America West members paid more dues than ever before on record earnings in the year before the ongoing strike, although a good part of that may be due to a speed-up in pre-strike production.
Exact figures aren’t available because the guild did not include earnings and employment data in its latest financial statement that before now always accompanied its annual reports. “Because of the strike, we are omitting the state-of-the-industry data that normally accompanies the financial statement,” the latest report states.
But membership dues collected by the guild in the fiscal year that ended March 31, 2023 – just a month before the strike began on May 2 – were included in the latest report, and they provide a good indication of covered earnings because the vast majority of dues is based on earnings.
According to its most recent annual financial report, dated June 29, the guild collected $41,585,533 in member dues and initiation fees in the year before the strike began – an all-time high that was up 24.6% from the prior year’s $33,374,582, and 14.6% higher than the previous record-high of $35,978,198 for the fiscal year that ended just as the Covid pandemic was beginning in March 2020.
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