{"id":18967,"date":"2019-04-13T16:30:43","date_gmt":"2019-04-14T00:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/uncharted-waters-union-tells-hollywood-writers-to-fire-their-agents\/"},"modified":"2019-04-13T16:30:43","modified_gmt":"2019-04-14T00:30:43","slug":"uncharted-waters-union-tells-hollywood-writers-to-fire-their-agents","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/associatednews.info\/content\/uncharted-waters-union-tells-hollywood-writers-to-fire-their-agents\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Uncharted Waters’: Union Tells Hollywood Writers To Fire Their Agents"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Sasha Ingber<\/a><\/span> <\/p>\n

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\n Writers Guild of America West President David Goodman speaks in Los Angeles at the 2019 union award ceremony. The WGA instructed is writers to fire their agents on Friday.<\/p>\n

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Frazer Harrison\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

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Frazer Harrison\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

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Thousands of Hollywood writers have been told by the Writers Guild of America to fire their agents \u2014 a drastic move that could impinge the production of new TV shows and films.<\/p>\n

The abrupt directive on Friday followed a breakdown in negotiations over proposed changes to the agreement<\/a> that has guided the basic business relationship between writers and agents for the past 43 years. <\/p>\n

With talks stalled ahead of a midnight deadline, the WGA sent its 13,000 writers an email with instructions to notify their agents in writing that they cannot represent them until signing a new code of conduct.<\/p>\n

“We know that, together, we are about to enter uncharted waters,” the message stated. “Life that deviates from the current system might be various degrees of disorienting. But it has become clear that a big change is necessary.”<\/p>\n

It was a bold move for a group accustomed to writing its own scripts. “I guess the idea of taking on our agents is something people never thought we would do,” said David Goodman, the president of the Writers Guild of America West, in an interview with NPR.<\/p>\n