And on Wednesday, the union renewed its push for a separate contract for those workers, staging what it called a walkout at roughly a dozen reality show companies in New York
and Los Angeles, including Leftfield Entertainment, best known for making the cable hit “Pawn Stars,” and Peacock Productions, a unit of NBCUniversal.
Reality Show Workers Stage a Walkout to Push Contract Talks Forward -
By BROOKS BARNESAPRIL 12, 2017
LOS ANGELES — Having successfully turned up the heat on one set of entertainment companies,
the Writers Guild of America on Wednesday gave another group a turn on the burner.
“Conditions are still rough in this part of the business, and we are determined to change that.”
The action, which involved at least 100 workers, the union said, took place at lunchtime,
which may seem like an odd moment to get attention from an employer.
“It’s about asserting power,” said Lowell Peterson, executive director of the Writers Guild of America, East, the unit which led the effort.
In a statement at the time, Leftfield called the action “unprofessional and egregious.”
The guild began recruiting reality show writer-producers about six years ago.
But the Writers Guild also represents a different set of storytellers — the writer-producers who help put together reality shows.
A substantial number of reality shows are still made
that way, but nearly 1,000 writers and producers in this corner of television are now union members.