There has been a spate of articles recently about U.S. producers turning to writers from other countries. It’s unlikely to happen because of the work of the IAWG.

Most English language writers around the world with a reasonable amount of experience belong to a guild. Not all the guilds are as powerful, wealthy or well-organized as the WGA, or the WGC for that matter. Not all of them have collective agreements in place. But many of them belong to an organization called the International Affiliation of Writers Guilds (IAWG).

The IAWG is a forum through which writers and their guilds share information and work to improve the writers’ rights. One of the things member guilds do is agree to support each other in labour action.

The IAWG has an annual meeting and it just so happens that it is being held this week in Montreal. I’ll be there and I think it should be an interesting few days. There will, I’m sure, be strike talk. But we also hear about the conditions under which writers around the world are working.

The participating member guilds include our hosts SARTEC (Société des auteurs de radio, télévision et cinéma) which represents French speaking writers in Quebec, the Australian Writers Guild (AWG), the Irish Playwrights and Screenwriters Guild (IPSG), New Zealand Writers Guild (NZWG), Writers Guild of America East (WGAe), Writers Guild of America West (WGAw), Writers Guild of Great Britain (WGGB) and us, the Writers Guild of Canada (WGC). Also present will be associate members Sección de Autores y Adaptadores de Cine, South African Script Writers Union and Union-Guilde des scenaristes. Finally there will be observers from Federation of Scriptwriters in Europe and Union Network International.