Roving pickets in NYC
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NEW YORK — Faced with a smaller writing community than in Los Angeles and less space for demonstrating, the WGA, East, is concentrating its efforts.
Instead of setting up picket lines outside various film sets and network headquarters across the city, the union is targeting a different location every day.
Today, the scribes amassed in front of Rockefeller Center, the home of NBC Universal. (Just arranging that picket took some doing: The guild had to get a permit from the city, which dispatched a bevy of NYPD officers first thing in the morning to set up a cordoned-off area for the strikers.) On Tuesday, the target is Silvercup Studios, the massive production facility in Long Island City. (For you Angelenos, that’s not in Long Island; it’s in Queens, just a short drive across the 59th Street Bridge from the Upper East Side.)
Housed in the former flour silo of a bakery, Silvercup hosts numerous film and television productions. This season, “30 Rock,” “Gossip Girl,” “New Amsterdam” and the just-delayed “Cashmere Mafia” have been shooting at the studio, as well as some films.
Stuart Match Suna, president of Silvercup, said he will respect the picketers’ rights and handle the protest “with a smile and grace.”
“I think it’s sad that the writers are on strike,” Suna said. “It’s a loss for everybody. I know a lot of crew are very concerned about being out of business. I hope it gets resolved quickly, for everybody’s interest.”
--Matea Gold