Universal Says Pruning Trees Along Picket Lines Wasn’t Meant to Take Away Shade from Protestors

Things are getting heated between the studios, actors, and writers, figuratively and literally.

A minor controversy began brewing on the picket lines when a viral tweet from a WGA member protesting outside of Universal’s lot in Los Angeles noted that the studio trimmed the trees along the street near demonstrations, all when temperatures are hitting over 90 degrees up in Burbank.

Deadline, which first reported on the controversy, even spoke with a WGA member outside Universal who called the tree trimming “very suspect,” wondering why branches were cut back on one side of the street near the studio gate and not the other.

When reached for comment by IndieWire, an NBCUniversal spokesperson said that the trimming is done annually for safety reasons, and that the studio is working through offering things like pop-up tents and water to protestors as additional accommodations.

“We understand that the safety tree trimming of the Ficus trees we did on Barham Blvd. has created unintended challenges for demonstrators, that was not our intention,” the spokesperson said in a statement. “In partnership with licensed arborists, we have pruned these trees annually at this time of year to ensure that the canopies are light ahead of the high wind season. We support the WGA and SAG’s right to demonstrate, and are working to provide some shade coverage. We continue to openly communicate with the labor leaders on-site to work together during this time.”

While SAG-AFTRA only just started formally picketing the studios, this is not the first time the WGA took issue with the safety conditions outside of Universal’s lot in Los Angeles. The WGA last month filed a petition for a pedestrian lane after NBCUniversal a week into the strike started a previously scheduled construction project that has made certain gates inaccessible for walking protestors. The spokesperson said that talks with the city on adding a so-called “K-Rail” of barriers are ongoing.