The New York Times: Actors’ Equity, the labor union representing American stage performers and stage managers, is seeking to unionize Broadway production assistants, one of the few nonunion segments of the industry work force.
The campaign comes at a moment when labor unions in the United States have become increasingly restive; there are organizing efforts in many sectors of the economy, and Hollywood’s writers and actors have been on strike for months.
3 comments:
I am so glad to see that Actors Equity is making strides to unionize the Broadway Production Assistants. It is immensely important that everyone in the theater industry gets fair representation, and especially for smaller but equally important roles of production assistants, as they are not really present for any higher level conversations and may struggle to get their complaints heard. It is also important that they have the same kind of protections and support as any other person working in theater, but without union backing that is not always the case. Many production assistants are also younger as it is an entry level position into the industry, and they may not feel comfortable negotiating a fair deal with high production figureheads, and that is why union representation would be so beneficial. I hope they are able to take over the production assistants, and start giving them the support they deserve.
A PA is such an important job for the theater. I cannot imagine any production even beginning to function without the help of a PA. It is crazy to me that the Production Assistants aren’t already part of a union. I had assumed that they were represented somewhere in either IATSE or Equity and I was quite shocked to realize that they weren’t. It made me realize that I really need to do more research on theatrical unions. If I am to be working in this industry it is really important for me to be educated on how exactly the union works. It was just always something I put off learning because it wasn’t yet relevant to me. It is awesome to see the unions becoming more recognized and supported in today’s society. The support for WGA and SAG was amazing. It was awesome to see everyone, both in and out of the industry, come together to support these amazing and hardworking artists and their unions.
I am really excited about the possibility of production assistants joining the union. As someone who has PAed on an equity workshop, we put in a lot of work and are an imperative part of the team. I recognize the apprehension for PAs to join the union as they are a temporary member of the team, however, the same could be said for any member of a production as all contracts are ultimately finite. While not my personal experience, I know PAs often get overworked in terms of hours, tasks, and breaks as they are not members of the union. My personal apprehension lives in the fact in that making this a union position will make it harder for entry-level stage managers to exist in union houses. While I know that legally anyone, union or non-union, can hold a union job, I do not often see this come to fruition. Ultimately, I am super interested in how this plays out and hope no matter the outcome, working conditions for PAs will improve!
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