The members of the Writers Guild of America West have voted overwhelmingly to approve Ellen Stutzman ‘s contract as the union’s executive director, a year after she led the union through a historic strike. Stutzman’s contract was ratified with 97% of the vote, with 2,279 in favor and 72 opposed. Stutzman was promoted to executive director last November, when the union announced that David Young, its longtime leader, would retire .
Young had taken a medical leave earlier that year, leaving Stutzman in place as chief negotiator during the talks with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. Stutzman was paid $680,000 in the last fiscal year, about double her salary when she was assistant executive director. The union also announced Tuesday that three new members have been elected to the Board of Directors.
Melinda Hsu , who was the showrunner of “Nancy Drew,” was the top vote-getter, with 1,491 votes. Chris Hazzard and Danny Tolli were also elected as new members to the board, finishing fifth and seventh. They will join five incumbents who were re-elected: Raphael Bob-Waksberg, Deric A.
Hughes, Justin Halpern, Travis Donnelly and John Rogers. Hsu hosts a podcast, “Lead With Kindness,” which is aimed at changing the culture of Hollywood to emphasize kindness and inclusion. She also ran for the board on a platform of kindness.
“Specifically, the goal of putting kindness into action is what spurred me to run,” she wrote in her candidate statement. “If elected, I’ll help launch Guild-driven training to effect long-term positive change in writers’ rooms and wherever the Guild can reach.” Hsu was a writer on “Lost,” and currently has an overall deal at ABC Signature.
Hazzard is a feature writer who participated in the “rapid response team” during the strike, which picketed and shut down location shoots in the early morning hours. Tolli was a strike captain and lot coordinator at Netflix..
