Writers of Guild of America, East president Michael Winship is not running for reelection.

Winship said Tuesday he decided to step away two years ago, when he last ran and that the timing of the last few weeks of his current term — which ends next month — coming in the midst of the current strike was “unfortunate.”

“Despite having already served five terms as president, from 2007-2017, I agreed to run again in 2021 to help work out issues the guild was facing in terms of constitutional revisions and other membership concerns, but I did say then that it only would be for two years,” Winship said in a statement explaining why his name was not on the ballot for election of new officers.

Currently there is just one candidate to replace Winship — WGAE VP Lisa Takeuchi-Cullen, TV writer, author and former journalist. She would be the first person of color to lead the union. 

Winship led the union during its last strike in 2007-2008.

Winship joked that some family members had threatened him with bodily harm if he ran again after four decades of service to the union.

WGAE represents writers in film, TV and streaming, as well as news, podcasts and other online media.

A few hundred picketing writers walked along West 26th Street in Manhattan during the afternoon of May 5, making their voices heard about the terms facing television and film writers in the modern age. The Writers Guild of America strike began May 2. 

Asked what brought her out, Allison Glock, executive producer on The Blacklist, said, “It’s the right thing to do. The system’s broken and it’s time for it to be rectified. Unfortunately, this is the only way that folks seem to listen.”

Glock and T Cooper are a writing team on The Blacklist, in its 10th and final season on NBC. 

“The system was broken by, essentially, tech,” Cooper said of streaming’s emergence in television. “When tech came in it broke something that wasn’t perfect, but was functioning in allowing people to live sustainable lives and know where your next job is coming from.”

Cooper said television has become yet another industry that has turned into a gig economy. “It’s not respectful of the workers,” he said. “Honestly, it’s really not dignified either. It’s a very terrible place to be expected to create beautiful, meaningful work when you’re terrified about where and if and how the next job will sustain you and your family.”

Glock and Cooper mentioned some “heavy hitters,” including Tom Fontana, Aidy Bryant and Mandy Patinkin, showing up to support the writers on West 26th Street. They mentioned the support of other unions, including the actors’ union SAG-AFTRA, theater union IATSE and the Teamsters, turning up as well, which Glock said made the 2023 strike different from previous ones. 

The writers will picket and protest for as long as the strike goes on, Glock believes. “I envision us being out here for as long as it takes,” she said. “I think New York is a union town and we don’t quit.”

Writers being writers, many expressed themselves with handwritten signs. “Logan Roy didn’t die on his own,” one said. “A writer killed him off.”

Said another, “Only writing signs now.”

The song selection pumping out onto the sidewalk between 11th Avenue and the West Side Highway, where FBI is shot, was carefully curated, featuring the likes of Aretha Franklin’s “Respect” and the Beatles’ “Money.”

Feature film writer Evan Parter, whose credits include The Independent, believes the studios are not taking the writers’ demands all that seriously. “I’m standing up for fair contracts for writers,” he said. 

He would not venture a guess as to how long the strike will last and is keeping an eye on the Directors Guild of America, whose contract expires June 30, to see how those contract negotiations may influence the writers guild. 

Walking with Parter was Madeline Crowley, an NYU student aspiring to be a screenwriter. “It’s really important to stand up for the industry that I want to be joining one day,” she said.