Striking Writers Guild members to picket Boston University graduation ceremony, reports say
Boston University students may have to cross a picket line to cross their graduation stage later this month.
Members of the Writers Guild of America plan to picket BU’s May 21 graduation ceremony, where Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslac will make the commencement address.
The guild announced their intention to picket the graduation at Nickerson Field after BU announced they had no intention to remove Zaslav, a school alum, as commencement speaker, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
BU first announced Zaslav as the speaker on May 4. In a previous statement, the WGA called BU’s decision to stab Zaslav as a commencement speaker “poor” and noted that Boston-based guild members and students in the school’s film and television programs have expressed “deep disappointment” in BU, according to the Reporter.
THE WGA initiated the strike on May 2 after negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers broke down. It is the first writer’s strike in Hollywood in 15 years.
According to the WGA, the AMPTP has been unwilling to grant significant increases in compensation, staffing requirements, duration of employment, streaming-based residuals and the use of artificial intelligence to draft scripts.
The AMPTP maintains its contract offer was “generous”.
In a May 5 appearance on CNBC’s ‘Squak Box’, Zaslac said he believed writers deserved to be fairly compensated.
“Look, we’re a pure storytelling company, and we’ve been fighting to get the greatest creatives to come work at Warner Bros.,” Zaslav said. “In order to create great storytelling, we need great writers, and we need the whole industry to work together, and everybody deserves to be paid fairly. So our number one focus is, Let’s try and get this resolved. Let’s do it in a way that the writers feel that they’re valued — which they are — and they’re compensated fairly. And then off we go. Let’s tell great stories together.”
The Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) sent a statement regarding the picketing:
“With the support of Boston University students, New England-based WGA members, as well as other regional unions and community groups, the Writers Guild of America announced it will picket Warner Bros. Discovery President & CEO David Zaslav at Boston University’s 150th All-Student Commencement Exercises at Nickerson Field on Sunday, May 21, 2023. Right now, 11,500 WGA members across the country are on strike because Companies—including Warner Bros. Discovery—refuse to negotiate a fair contract that addresses writers’ reasonable demands around pay, residuals, and the existential threat that AI poses to workers. It is shameful that, in the midst of an action to preserve the future of work, Boston University would use a graduation ceremony to honor someone who is intent on destroying students’ prospects for building sustainable careers.”
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