The Writers Guild of America asked members on Friday to uphold disciplinary actions against four of their brethren who are accused of violating guild rules during the 2023 strike.
Three of the writers — Edward John Drake, Roma Roth and Julie Bush — are accused of performing forbidden “writing services” in violation of union solidarity. A fourth member, Tim Doyle, is accused of making an off-color joke in a Facebook group of fellow writers.
The WGA West board voted to expel Drake and Roth, the severest form of punishment for guild rule violations. Bush was given a temporary suspension and a lifetime ban on serving as a strike captain, while Doyle was given a public censure.
All four are appealing the discipline to the general membership. Three other members, who were not identified, were also found guilty by trial committees of writing during the strike. Those members elected not to appeal.
A vote on the appeals will take place by online ballot from May 6-9.
In written memos, each of the four writers asked the membership to overturn the board’s decision. Several argued that they had been subjected to an unfair process, and had been tormented with the fear of public shaming and the ensuing consequences for their careers.
“The Board should not be able to intimidate, conduct unfair trials, dole out retaliatory discipline without due process, or disregard the recommendations of its committees and investigators,” Drake wrote. “This has been a horrible ordeal, one I hope you never have to go through. I have been living under the guillotine of fear for months that I could wake up and the Board would have publicly announced my unfair expulsion.”
Drake was the writer-director of an independent film, “Guns Up,” which was in production in New Jersey during the strike. The WGAW board alleged that Drake engaged in “scab writing” during production, and that he refused to turn over drafts of the script to guild investigators. Drake was also accused of refusing to identify a person who rewrote the ending of the film, and who was not a guild member.
“The trial committee explained to Drake the importance of identifying the strikebreaker, so the Guild could take action against an individual who undermined the strike,” the board wrote in its position statement. “Drake still refused.”
Drake argued that he was being punished for refusing to “name names.” He also argued that he made “adjustments” and “tweaks” to the script in his capacity as the film’s director, and that he did so in accordance with the Directors Guild of America guidelines. Such minor script revisions are the subject of a decades-long dispute between the WGA and the DGA.
The WGA trial committee recommended an 18-month suspension, and offered to restore Drake’s membership if he would identify the person who rewrote the ending. The board voted to increase the discipline to expulsion and to publicly identify Drake. According to Drake’s appeal, the motion to expel was offered by Adam Conover, one of the most prominent strike leaders.
“If you believe Adam Conover and the Board should have to explain why they went against the recommendations of their own investigator, Head of the (Strike Rules Compliance Committee) and Trial Committee — the governing systems the WGAw has in place to ensure fair treatment of its members — then please vote to overturn their expulsion,” Drake wrote.
In response, the WGA board argued that Drake had shown “contempt” for the proceedings, and had stormed out of a hearing on several occasions.
“Every Guild member knows what it means when there’s a strike: pencils down,” the board wrote. “Edward Drake did not go pencils down during the strike.”
Roth is a Canadian writer who was working as the showrunner on the series “Sullivan’s Crossing” in Nova Scotia when the strike began. According to the WGA board, two writers on the show informed the guild that Roth participated in a Zoom writers’ room and engaged in other writing activity during the strike.
“The evidence established that, during the strike, Roth broke stories, revised outlines, rewrote scripts, and gave instructions, directions or suggestions to other writers regarding stories and teleplays,” the WGAW board wrote in its position statement.
In her defense, Roth argued that she had ended her writing contract once the strike began, and continued on the show as a non-writing executive producer. She wrote that she was “shocked” by the harsh discipline, and did not anticipate that the WGA would “construe my producing work as ‘performing writing services.’”
Roth, who was also an executive producer on “Virgin River,” is a dual member of the WGA and the Writers Guild of Canada. The show was produced under WGC jurisdiction, which required Roth to get a waiver from the WGA as the production company was not a signatory to the WGA contract. Once the strike began, the waiver was rescinded, precluding her from performing writing services for a non-signatory.
She also stated that the two writers who testified against her were biased due to personal grievances. She also stated that the chair of the trial committee resigned after deciding the process was “flawed and unfair.”
“I understand and respect the fact that you have all sacrificed a lot during the strike,” she wrote. “Please know that I would never have knowingly caused harm to you or our Guild. Many producers and writers outside the U.S. continued to work during the strike, including both writers who testified against me.”
Bush was also charged with violating the guild’s prohibition against working for non-signatory companies. According to the documents, Bush was accused of turning in a revised draft of a pilot script for a show about Elon Musk and Tesla on May 22, three weeks into the strike.
“Scab writing cannot be tolerated,” the board wrote. “It is anathema to the culture of solidarity among the membership that makes the Guild a fighting union.”
Bush fought the charge. She argued that her lawyers had closed the deal for the show on the eve of the strike, and that she had exchanged numerous messages with WGA lawyers to make sure it was OK.
She was found not to have broken the strike rule, because the company was not a signatory. She also said that the company had promised to become a signatory, but later reneged on their agreement and refused to pay her.
The trial committee recommended a private letter of censure and a bar on serving as a strike captain for three years. The board upgraded the punishment to a suspension through May 2026, a lifetime ban on serving as a captain, and a public censure.
In her appeal, she argued that she had not violated the rule against working for a non-signatory company, in part because she never got paid. She also argued that the only reason the WGA found out about the issue was because she had come to the guild for help.
“Yet, the very information I provided confidentially to get help against a manipulative company was ultimately turned around and weaponized by Guild staff to build the case against me,” she wrote. “They are trying to make an example out of me. But I’m not an example. I’m a human being.”
The WGA defended its decision to make Bush’s decision public.
“The Board’s decision is rooted in transparency,” the board wrote. “The membership has a right to know when another member undermined that collective action, as Bush did. The membership also has a right to know the consequences for those who chose to write during the strike.”
Doyle was publicly censured via a mass-email to the membership last July for a poor attempt at a joke on Facebook. In August 2023, a member in the WGA Writers Facebook group posted about a strike milestone: “Happy 100th day, to all who observe…”
“I just got my tree up!” Doyle responded, with an image of silhouette of a man hanging from a tree branch.
Doyle contended that the image was meant to reference his own suicide, and that it was “gallows humor” about the anxiety that writers were feeling about the future of the industry. But some within the group took it as a racist depiction of a lynching.
Doyle was accused of violating the WGA Constitution by engaging in “conduct prejudicial to the welfare of the Guild.” A trial committee voted to give him a private censure, ruling that Doyle was remorseful and did not intend to post an image of a lynching. The committee also found that he had failed to fully account for the harm of his actions or offer a sincere apology.
The board upgraded the discipline to a public censure, and pushed back on concerns that it was policing his speech on social media.
“The Board has the right to censure conduct it deems harmful to its members’ interests, particularly where that conduct takes place publicly,” the board found. “Such censure is itself a form of free speech.”
In response, Doyle said that he continues to be “mortified” by his action, and to reach out to apologize to those whom he offended. He also wrote that it was “painful” to feel alienated from the writing community, and said that the censure speaks of a “smallness” of attitude, a refusal to forgive, and a failure of empathy.
“These are obviously tough times for our union (and our industry, country and planet), and a frustrating time for writers – lots of bad news and very few genuine victories,” Doyle wrote. “We can’t seem to touch any of the big bosses responsible. Do people think taking down a fellow writer might satisfy as a consolation prize?”
The board urged the membership to uphold the public censure.
“He was not ‘blacklisted,’ denied employment, or deprived of any of the rights of current members of the Guild,” the board wrote. “He was called out for conduct that harmed Guild members.”
WGA members were encouraged during the strike to report instances of strike-breaking to the guild. The Strike Rules Compliance Committee, led by writer Glen Mazzara, investigated dozens of such allegations, according to the board’s response to Drake.
