David Young leaves his post as director of the WGA West after 18 years; Ellen Stutzman, Strike’s chief negotiator, takes over the position

The David Young era ends at the Writers Guild.

The WGA West board informed members in a letter today that the union’s longtime executive director, who led several collective bargaining campaigns on behalf of the writers, including the 2020 negotiations, is leaving when his contract expires. Ellen Stutzman, who served as the WGAW’s chief negotiator during this year’s 148-day strike, was promoted to the position.

Young went on leave in February before the Writers Guild strike, and 18-year WGAW veteran Stutzman was asked to lead contract negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

Known for his tough negotiating style, Young joined the guild as head of organizational affairs in 2004 and was promoted to executive director the following year. During a heated phone conversation in 2020, Young famously told WME affiliate Rick Rosen to “kick his ass,” but denied ever threatening to “kill” him, as Rosen claimed in a statement released was filed in Federal Court in the summer.

“I am well aware that workplace conflicts often lead to strong expressions of emotion and heated rhetoric,” Young said at the time. “I trust that Mr. Rosen understands that such rhetoric should not be taken literally. And as I explained, I am a professional negotiator. I will not allow my personal feelings to influence my actions or influence my judgment on how to best achieve the political goals set forth by the Guilds elected leadership.”

The board describes his organizational experience and strategic understanding as “essential to growing the Guild into the fighting organization it is today.”

“David is a smart, creative strategist,” said WGAW President Meredith Stiehm. “Under his leadership, we won the 2007 strike and made progress in five MBA negotiations; and most importantly, he won the agency’s campaign, a stunning success for our guild. It changed the financial lives of authors and aligned their interests with those of their representatives.”

David A. Goodman, former WGAW President and Co-Chair of the 2023 WGA Negotiating Committee, added: “As Executive Director, David Young completely redefined the position. But just as important was his role as a mentor to me and so many other guild leaders; He told us about the challenges the WGA faced as an important union in Hollywood, and whatever those particular challenges were, they didn’t change the fact that our power was the power of every union: the organization that Education and solidarity from our membership.

Stutzman was also involved in numerous MBA negotiations. Her service at WGAW began in January 2006 as a researcher and progressed to director of research and public policy. In 2018, she was promoted to deputy executive director, overseeing the agency, contracts, legal and research and public policy departments. Since this year, she has been acting as trustee of the pension and sickness funds.

WGA leaders also praised their new director.

“Ellen is a stable, calm force to be reckoned with, as we’ve all seen over the past five months as she led us to victory in Strike 2023,” said Stiehm. “She is loved by staff and members and I have every confidence in her as she takes on this role. Writers couldn’t be in better hands.”

Keyser said: “There is nothing more important – in determining the outcome of things – than the right person at the right time.” That was Ellen for us. Just the right person at the wrong time,” says Keyser. “The first and perhaps most important decision we all made during our MBA struggle in 2023 was to trust Ellen. We trusted her completely: her calmness, her strategic insight, her fire. She is what kept us together – this knowledge, this comfort: Ellen is there for us.”

Here is the WGAW Board’s full letter to members:

Dear members,

We are writing to inform you of a change in the Guild’s personnel management. Our longtime managing director, David Young, is leaving WGAW after his contract expires.

Our membership owes a lot to David. His organizational experience and strategic understanding were crucial in building the Guild into the fighting organization it is today.

David first joined the Guild in 2004 as Organizational Director and became Executive Director in 2005. David worked with elected leaders to take on and win a number of important battles. The many advances during David’s tenure included getting coverage online, introducing and subsequently improving compensation and residuals in streaming, beginning to hedge against the changing work structure in television, securing premium increases to protect health care and pension funds, as well as the establishment of paid parenthood. allowances. The Guild also led a highly successful campaign to align our agencies’ interests with our own by eliminating the conflicts of interest inherent in agency organization and studio ownership.

In David’s time, the chieftaincy system developed into a permanent and decisive governing body, and the guild’s enforcement became more focused and strategic. The Guild revived its work in public policy and became a force in politics, supporting our strategic initiatives and fighting for net neutrality and labor rights and against media consolidation. The Guild is a stronger union through David’s leadership and we are grateful for his commitment to our members.

David asked us to share his thoughts: “It’s been an honor to work with and for writers. I was also lucky enough to work with the guild staff, who were fantastic.”

We have appointed Ellen Stutzman as Managing Director, effective immediately. A Guild employee for 18 years, Ellen recently served as WGA negotiator for our MBA negotiations, which began on February 28th. Working with the bargaining committee and elected leadership, Ellen was instrumental in leading our union through the recent successful contract negotiations and strike.

Ellen began her role as a researcher in January 2006 and rose to become Director of Research and Public Policy. She oversaw the guild’s work to combat mergers and promote media competition. Ellen was promoted to deputy executive director in 2018 and leads the agency, contracts, legal and research and public policy departments. As part of the leadership team, Ellen played an important strategic role in the agency campaign and in numerous MBA negotiations. Ellen has been a trustee of the pension and sickness funds since 2018. Ellen is a graduate of Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations and holds an MBA from the UCLA Anderson School of Management.

We say a grateful farewell to David and welcome Ellen in her new role. We look forward to building on our union’s successes and continuing to do the important work of advancing the creative and economic interests of writers.

solidary,

WGAW Council