PGA presidents reiterate support for striking writers

Following actor Sean Penn’s misguided attack on Producers Guild of America producers during a Cannes presser, PGA reps Donald De Line and Stephanie Allain have clarified their position on the writers’ strike.

While Penn confused the PGA with AMPTP, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, Donald De Line and Stephanie Allain explain their work.

Addressing the PGA’s work the duo explained to The Hollywood Reporter:

“The PGA is not a union. It is a nonprofit trade organization. We do not have a collective bargaining agreement with the AMPTP. We advocate for and educate our members, and expose them to new ideas so they can work to improve their deals. We’re a collection of individual producers, as opposed to a collection of for-profit companies.”

“A major focus for the past several years is that we are the only artist on a union production that has no minimum salary and no health insurance. We don’t have health care, period. End of story.”

The duo also highlighted that producers have no guaranteed minimum wage and thousands are working below the minimum benchmark.

“These producers are the lifeblood of any production and deserve better pay and benefits. “

Elaborating on why they’re rallying behind writers they added:

“We’re advocating for all producers to know their worth, know their value, and to communicate that value to their representatives so that studios, networks and streamers hear the same thing over and over again, which is, “This is not fair, and we’ve got to make some changes.””

“We have a lot of the same concerns that members of the Writers Guild and other guilds have, except we have no seat at the bargaining table.”

“The bottom line is that our members understand the struggle. Writers are the foundation of what we all do. And to see them not being fairly compensated — it hurts.”

“We are empathetic, we’re sympathetic, and that’s why we’re aligned with them in their fight for fair pay. They are putting their livelihoods on the line not just for themselves, but for the business, for the future of creative storytelling and for the culture. And we share those values.”

The PGA also showed up to support the WGA last week.