David Young Exiting As WGA West Exec Director After 18 Years; Strike’s Chief Negotiator Ellen Stutzman Taking Post

Erik Pedersen
·6 min read
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The David Young era is ending at the Writers Guild.

The WGA West Board of Directors told members in a letter today that the union’s longtime Executive Director, who has spearheaded multiple bargaining campaigns on behalf of the writers including the 2020 negotiations, is exiting when his contract expires. Ellen Stutzman, who served as WGAW’s chief negotiator during its 148-day strike this year, has been promoted to the post.

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Young went on medical leave in February, ahead of the Writers Guild strike, and 18-year WGAW vet Stutzman was tapped to lead contract negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television producers.

Known for his bare-knuckle negotiating style, Young joined as the head of the guild’s organizing department in 2004 and was upped to Executive Director the following year. During a heated phone call in 2020, Young famously told WME partner Rick Rosen that he “should kick his ass” but denied that he ever threatened to “kill” him, as Rosen alleged in a declaration filed in federal court that summer.

“I am well aware that labor disputes often trigger strong expressions of feeling and heated rhetoric,” Young said at the time. “As I expect Mr. Rosen understands, any such rhetoric is not to be taken literally. And as I have already explained, I am a professional negotiator. I do not allow my personal emotions to guide my actions or influence my judgment about how best to achieve the policy objectives set by the Guilds’ elected leadership.”

The board credits his organizing experience and strategic acumen as being “essential to building the Guild into the fighting organization it is today.”

“David is a shrewd, creative strategist,” said WGAW President Meredith Stiehm. “Under his leadership we won the 2007 strike, made gains in five MBA negotiations; and most notably, won the agency campaign, a stunning success for our Guild. It transformed writers’ financial lives, and ensured that their interests were properly aligned with their representatives.”

Added former WGAW president and 2023 WGA Negotiating Committee co-chair David A. Goodman: “As Executive Director, David Young completely redefined the position. But what was just as important was his role as mentor to me and so many other Guild leaders; he educated us on the challenges the WGA faced being a vital union in Hollywood, and that, whatever those specific challenges, it didn’t change the fact that our power was every union’s power: the organization, education and solidarity of our membership.”

Stutzman also has been part of numerous MBA negotiations. Her WGAW tenure began in January 2006 as a researcher and rose to become the Research & Public Policy Director. She was promoted to Assistant Executive Director in 2018, with oversight over the Agency, Contracts, Legal, and Research & Public Policy departments, and has served as a trustee on the Pension and Health Funds since that year.

WGA leaders also praised their incoming exec director.

“Ellen is a steady, calm force to be reckoned with, as we all witnessed these past five months as she led us to victory in the 2023 strike,” Stiehm said. “She is beloved by staff and members, and I have every confidence in her as she steps into this role. Writers could not be in better hands.”

Said Keyser: “There’s nothing more important – that determines the outcome of things more – than the right person at the right time. Ellen was that for us. The exact right person at a tenuous moment,” said Keyser. “The first, maybe most important, decision we all made in the course of our 2023 MBA fight was to trust Ellen. We trusted her completely: her calm, her strategic sense, her fire. She is the thing that held us together – this knowledge, this comfort: Ellen is in there for us.”

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

Dear Members,

We are writing to let you know about a transition in staff leadership at the Guild. Our long-time Executive Director, David Young, is leaving the WGAW at the end of his contract.

Our membership owes David a great debt. His organizing experience and strategic acumen were essential to building the Guild into the fighting organization it is today.

David first joined the Guild in 2004 as Organizing Director, and became Executive Director in 2005. David worked with elected leadership to take on – and win—a series of important fights. Some of the many advances during David’s tenure included winning coverage of the internet, establishing and then improving compensation and residuals in streaming, starting to secure protections against the changing structure of work in TV, securing contribution increases to protect the health and pension funds and establishing a paid parental leave benefit. The Guild also waged an essential successful campaign to realign our agencies’ interests with our own by eliminating the conflicts of interest inherent in packaging and agency ownership of studios.

During David’s time the captain system developed into a permanent and crucial rank-and-file leadership body, and the Guild’s enforcement became more focused and strategic. The Guild revitalized its public policy work and became a force in politics to support our strategic initiatives, fighting for net neutrality and labor rights, and against media consolidation. The Guild is a stronger union as a result of David’s leadership, and we are grateful for his dedication to our members.

David asked us to convey his thoughts: “It has been an honor to work with and for writers. I’ve also been lucky to collaborate with the Guild’s staff, which is superb.”

We have appointed Ellen Stutzman as Executive Director, effective immediately. A Guild employee for 18 years, Ellen served most recently as WGA Chief Negotiator for our MBA negotiations beginning on February 28. Working with the negotiating committee and elected leadership, Ellen was instrumental in leading our union through the recent successful contract negotiation and strike.

Ellen began her tenure in January 2006 as a researcher, and rose to become the Research & Public Policy Director. She oversaw the Guild’s work challenging mergers and promoting media competition. Ellen was promoted to Assistant Executive Director in 2018, with oversight over the Agency, Contracts, Legal, and Research & Public Policy departments. As part of the executive staff, Ellen played a key strategic role in the agency campaign as well as numerous MBA negotiations. Since 2018 Ellen has served as a trustee on the Pension and Health Funds. Ellen is a graduate of Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations and has an MBA from the UCLA  Anderson School of Management.

As we say a grateful goodbye to David, and welcome Ellen to her new role, we look forward to building on our union’s accomplishments and continuing to do the important work of advancing the creative and economic interests of writers.

In Solidarity,

WGAW Board of Directors

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