A coalition of eight professional sports unions, including the Major League Baseball Players Association, National Football League Players Association, National Basketball Players Association, National Women’s Basketball Association, National Hockey League Players Association, Major League Soccer Players Association, National Women’s Soccer League Players Association, and United States Women’s National (Soccer) Team Players Association, have issued a statement of support for the ongoing Writers Guild strike, which has entered its third week.
The joint statement emphasized that writers should have contracts that provide them with proper working conditions to be creative. The unions also expressed their unity with WGA members in their pursuit of a fair agreement that recognizes the significant value they bring to the television and film industries.
Strikes are not unusual in American sports, with examples like the NBPA suspending operations in 2020 after the shooting of an unarmed Black man, Jacob Blake, in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Baseball players also went on strike multiple times in the past, including in 1972, 1980, 1981, and 1985.
In solidarity with the Writers Guild, 90 other guilds, trade unions, organizations, and 38 politicians have joined the sports unions to lend support for the strike.