"Is our contribution any less meaningful than the caterer who puts the yogurt on the ice [and] gets benefits?" asked Richard Hicks, president of the Casting Society of America and a casting director who, like others in his profession, receives no healthcare or pension benefits for the job he does. It's a question that casting directors have been asking for decades. This summer, casting directors are saying they are prepared to fight for the benefits they have long been denied.
Over the past three and a half years, film and television casting directors have been quietly organizing themselves into a bargaining unit as part of Teamsters Local 399. They now have the support of some 500 to 600 casting directors and associates in Los Angeles and New York. In May, they officially approached the Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) to request recognition as a bargaining unit and to negotiate the first-ever union contract for casting directors. Last month, they received the AMPTP's response in a letter from President J. Nicholas Counter III: The AMPTP refused to recognize them.
Does this mean war?
"They've left us no room for any kind of dialogue at this point," said Teamsters business agent Steve Dayan, who has been working closely with casting directors in their organizing effort. "We're in a situation where the casting directors are going to need to consider what our options are. You could go to the National Labor Relations Board, but that could take years. So that is an option we are exploring, but I think that waiting years, going through a legal morass, is not the way to get a contract for these folks. That's why I think a job action is more likely."
Indeed, at this stage, negotiation does not seem possible. The letter from the AMPTP states that the organization does not even recognize the casting directors' unionizing efforts as legal. "There is no legal basis upon which such recognition could be granted," wrote Counter. "Moreover, many of the casting directors are independent contractors or supervisors which your organization cannot represent for bargaining purposes."
"My interpretation is that he is saying, 'You are not employees, you are independent contractors,' and legally employees are allowed to form a union and independent contractors are not," responded Hicks.
Independent Contractors?
But couldn't actors and directors be considered independent contractors as well?
"That's our point," said Hicks. "If we're independent contractors, then directors are independent contractors as well."
If it does come to a work stoppage, when would that occur?
The Teamsters' Dayan explained, "I don't think that we are going to say, 'We're going to strike on July 12' or on a particular date. There will probably be a meeting in mid-July to talk to the casting directors about what the next move is. I think this job action would take place until the employers recognized the casting directors. What we are trying to do is to demonstrate to the studios that this group is committed, and I think that the only way this is going to happen is by a job action, and it is unfortunate because nobody wants to see that kind of situation occur."
Indeed, casting director and former CSA President Gary Zuckerbrod, who has helped spearhead the unionizing effort, insisted, "We are going to do everything we can to avoid a strike."
"It's a fluid situation," explained Hicks. "We need to continue to remind our community that we are powerful when we move together. We are trying to find a balance between a move that is meaningful within the industry and does as good a job as I can do personally to make sure that people in my community are not put at risk."
But Hicks added that he has already taken the temperature in his community. Does he believe most casting directors are willing to strike to fight for recognition?
"Yes, I do," Hicks said.
The casting directors' level of commitment seems fueled by a sense of injustice and a desire for "the same benefits and equality everyone else in the industry gets," said Zuckerbrod. "We hire an actor; that actor receives benefits. The directors who direct them, they receive benefits. The people who costume them, they receive benefits. The cinematographers who shoot them, they receive benefits. The only person who doesn't is the person who supplies the actor onto the set. I work on 'Without a Trace.' Every person working on that show receives benefits and a contribution to pension and welfare funds except me and my associate."
Casting directors have claimed that, in extreme cases, this lack of healthcare benefits has cost lives. Recalled Hicks, "There was a casting director named Linda Francis. She had some sort of heart condition, but she did not have health insurance, so she put off going to the doctor until it was too late. I personally know casting directors who have worked through cancer because we have no disability. There is no safety net.
"In an industry in which, through DVDs and videos, all sorts of revenue streams have come in the last 20 years—and in which the corporate parents of these productions make more money than they ever have made—we are outraged that basic American workplace benefits are denied to working members. These are people who work constantly, and the only thing we have is what we are able to save."
The Effect on Actors
So what would a casting director strike mean for actors?
"Actors cannot by their contract leave a contractual job to walk out in sympathy with any other union," said Zuckerbrod. "But we are hoping that actors who are not under contract would stand and support us, just as we've supported them over all the years."
At its last national board meeting, the Screen Actors Guild passed a resolution in support of the casting directors' organizing efforts. SAG spokesman Seth Oster explained that the guild would support casting directors if they determine that a work stoppage is necessary. While SAG members do have a "no strike" clause in their contract—which legally prevents them from walking out of a job—they are free to offer support by picketing or by refusing to accept work.
While it is still unclear whether a strike will be necessary, it is obvious that casting directors are deeply committed to a fight they feel is long overdue. Some casting directors, such as Mike Fenton ("Raiders of the Lost Ark"), have been working on this issue for nearly two decades.
"Mike Fenton, who cast some amazing movies in the '70s and '80s, he shows up at these meetings saying, 'If we had said 'yes' to this 20 years ago, I'd be fully vested in a pension,' " Hicks recalled. "With ageism in Hollywood, in your early 50s you are faced with a stark choice. You either pay $600 a month in health insurance, or you become uninsured, or you leave the business. It's unconscionable in an industry that is awash with money that the small amount of money that we are asking for to cover us with a pension and a health plan is something that's beyond their ability to deal with."