Accused strike violator was subject to a ‘flawed’ and ‘improper’ discipline process, WGA trial chair says

A chair of a trial committee of the Writers Guild of America West has called out the union’s handling of disciplinary proceedings against one member accused of flouting the union’s rules during the 2023 strike.

In a four-page letter , Jill Goldsmith, a former public defender from Cook County,
conveyed profound concerns over the process behind the board’s decision to expel one writer, saying it was not “fair and proper,” according to a copy of the letter reviewed by The Times.

“I agreed to serve my Guild as a Trial Committee member, when I was assured of fairness in the process,” Goldsmith wrote, adding that “If we are to impose the most extreme punishment of expulsion, the process cannot be the flawed one that occurred.”

In her Feb. 24 letter to the WGAW board, Goldsmith said that the board had repudiated the unanimous findings of the trial committee, and questioned whether the committee’s impartial legal counsel unfairly influenced the proceeding’s outcome. As such, she wrote that she “must respectfully withdraw, because “I believe something happened during the process that was improper.”

Goldsmith’s name was redacted from a copy of the letter viewed by the Times. However, a person with knowledge of the proceedings who was not authorized to comment publicly confirmed that it was written by the trial committee chair who was identified in documents as Goldsmith, a guild member and who is credited with having written for such shows as “Boston Legal” and “Ally McBeal.”

Goldsmith declined to comment on the letter.

The Writers Guild of America West also declined to comment on the specific claims of the letter, but in a statement the union said that four members have appealed their discipline to the membership, who will vote on the matter this week.

“This is an internal union matter and WGAW members can view relevant documents on the members-only section of the Guild’s website,” the statement said. “The Board of Directors is the only body involved in the process that is elected by the membership and the WGAW Constitution gives it the responsibility for determining the level of discipline when a member is found guilty by a trial committee.”

Goldsmith oversaw the trial of Roma Roth, an executive producer on the CW series “Sullivan’s Crossing” and “Virgin River” on Netflix, according to proceeding documents. The board expelled Roth for allegedly writing during the strike for a non-signatory company.

In her letter to the board, Goldsmith said that while she agreed that Roth had “crossed the line from producing to writing,” a violation of the guild’s strike rules, she objected to the process that led to the recommendation for her expulsion, after the committee had originally proposed Roth be given a five year suspension.

According to her letter, prior to their deliberations, the committee asked the committee’s legal advisor for “clarity” on the the possible punishments that could be meted out. Specifically, the committee asked to be provided with a slate of those punishments given to writers in the past — anonymously — in order to “assess proportionality and fairness in how punishments were addressed,” only to be told the committee was “not allowed to know that information,” she wrote.

According to her appeal statement to the WGAW, a copy of which was viewed by The Times, Roth said she was found was “not guilty” of violating strike rules and “did not work for a struck company,” adding that “Sullivan’s Crossing” was an independently financed Canadian series.

She called her expulsion “excessive and disproportionate.”

“The Board found me guilty of violating Article X of the Constitution, Working Rule 8 (“WR8”), i.e. working without a waiver. A violation that according to the Working Rules should be subject to a fine, NOT expulsion,” wrote Roth, a member of the WGA and the Writers Guild of Canada.

In her appeal documents, Roth called her disciplinary hearing “unfair” and “improper,” and outlined numerous instances that she says demonstrate violations of due process.

Roth cast doubt on the materials the guild submitted, including a partially obscured photo of the writer’s room that was provided as “evidence” that she was violating the rules about working during a strike. She said the room included her identical twin sister who was one of several Writers Guild Canada writers enlisted to work on the show.

Goldsmith’s letter echoed some of the assertions made by other disciplined writers, whose punishments range from public censure to suspensions to prohibitions from acting as volunteer captains; with the most drastic being expulsion. They have appealed the decisions.

Julie Bush, a consulting producer on AppleTV+’s “Manhunt,” is among those seeking to overturn her disciplinary action. The board suspended Bush from the guild until 2026 and she was barred from holding “non-elected guild office” after being found guilty of violating Working Rule 8 and writing for a non-signatory company during the strike. The trial committee had recommended that she be prohibited from serving as a guild captain for three years and censured privately.

Bush, who said she is a staunch union supporter, called the proceedings a “kangaroo court,” particularly as the information she said that was used against her was based on information she provided a guild attorney while seeking assistance.

“If this were a real court, it would be like if your defense lawyer takes off their defense lawyer hat and puts on his prosecutor hat and says ‘surprise, we got you’ with all this confidential information that you just turned over,” Bush told The Times.

“My particular case is a nuanced matter of contract law,” she added. “It should never have been brought to trial, much less, this big humiliation in the press. I cannot believe that we’ve gotten to this point.”