WGA names and shames strike breakers

The Writers Guild of America has named and shamed 28 members who effectively resigned from the union in order to work during the strike.

The individuals applied to downgrade their membership to "financial core" status, meaning they could still work under WGA conditions, but paid slightly less fees and were no longer active members. In a letter to members, Patric Verrone and Michael Winship, presidents of WGA West and East respectively, said many of those named worked and were paid.

Most were writers for soaps. They included Paula Cwikly (As the World Turns), Hogan Sheffer (Days of Our Lives, As the World Turns), Barbara J Esensten (The Guiding Light), Dena Higley (One Life to Live) and John F Smith (The Young and the Restless, The Bold and the Beautiful).

A notable high-profile name was John Ridley (Three Kings).

"...among the many there were a puny few who chose to do otherwise, who consciously and selfishly decided to place their own narrow interests over the greater good," the pair wrote.

"This handful of members who went financial core, resigning from the union yet continuing to receive the benefits of a union contract, must be held at arm’s length by the rest of us and judged accountable for what they are - strikebreakers whose actions placed everything for which we fought so hard at risk...

“Without concern for their colleagues, they turned their backs and tossed the burden of collective action onto the rest of us, taking jobs, reducing our leverage and damaging the guilds for their own advantage."