Casting Directors Teamsters Negotiation: The Minimum Wage Question

While many of Hollywood’s core trades have been members of organized labor organizations for decades and decades, some for nearly a century, casting directors first unionized just 19 years ago. Their vote to join two Teamsters Locals in 2005 was a watershed moment for the group responsible for scouting the next class of high-earning movie and television stars and matching actors and projects. In their first union contract, reached the following year, casting directors won protections like union health and retirement benefits, paid vacation time, and grievance and arbitration procedures.

But one component typical of a Hollywood union contract was missing from that first agreement that is now having ramifications for the group, according to some members: minimum wages. Just as they had before union representation, these freelancers have negotiated their own rates in the years since. And now, at a time of heightened anxiety and stringent cost-cutting regimes in Hollywood, that system no longer benefits the majority, several members of the casting union’s negotiating team say.

“There's been such a decline and a decrease in casting directors' salaries and how we're paid. Some casting directors are making less than they were making in the late '80s and early '90s” in real dollars (adjusted for inflation), before the group unionized, says casting director and Teamsters Local 399 bargaining committee member Sherry Thomas, who worked on breaking Bad, Bar AND The right gems.

“We were so happy [18] years ago to get a contract after several years of needing it,” adds Bernie Telsey, casting director and member of the negotiating committee for Teamsters Local 817 (The Golden Age, In the heights), who participated in the organizing campaign in the 2000s. “But we didn't know enough about it at the time.”

Casting professionals will return to the table on Monday to address that issue, as well as other major pay concerns for their members, which include casting associates (a kind of junior casting director) and assistants (who often handle administrative and technical work). Leaders of Teamsters Locals 817 and 399, which represent a group of about 700 casting professionals based in the New York City and Los Angeles areas, have two more days scheduled to negotiate with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the bargaining arm for major studios and streamers, before their contracts expire on Sept. 30.

In addition to setting minimum wages for casting directors, union leaders are seeking to significantly raise the standard pay of associate casting directors (unlike casting directors, associates have won minimum wages for episodic television that can help determine their pay for feature films) and establish inaugural contract language for casting assistants, who successfully unionized with the Teamsters in a National Labor Relations Board vote just last month: Establishing annual pay raises and health and retirement benefits are on the agenda for the group. Negotiators are also advocating for protective language for casting directors so that companies can’t suddenly terminate their employment early. (Though casting directors haven’t said so, DAY understand that this is a minimum length of employment proposal. Some casting directors negotiate time-related salary structures themselves.)

The union’s recent addition of casting assistants could offer a strategic advantage of sorts. With a new, more entry-level position added to the unionized group, union leaders are advocating significantly raising salaries for casting director associates to make that group more middle-of-the-road. (Associates, whose TV minimums are $26 an hour, rarely negotiate above-scale wages, according to a Teamsters representative.)

Incorporating casting assistants into the union also cements a less precarious career path for the industry, which could help diversify and open up a profession that will have an Oscar category for the first time starting in 2026, casting directors say. “Before, with assistants, there were a lot of people who had to exit the industry because it just wasn’t a sustainable option,” says casting director and negotiating committee member Rachel Tenner (Fargo, Severance, Wolf). “With these new changes, we hope to make this experience a real experience.”

So far, the group says, the talks have given them hope. During the first week of talks, which ran from August 26 to 30, the group made progress in reaching a consensus on issues related to casting assistants. “It really seems like [AMPTP negotiators] already recognize that assistants are a major force and deserve to have health care, a pension, and a seat at the table,” Telsey says. (Employer offers aren’t set in stone until a final tentative agreement is reached, she says.) The group declined to discuss specifics about where the parties still have differences, but returned repeatedly, in conversation, to their goal of ensuring casting professionals are paid “fairly” and to further educate employers about their responsibilities.

With just a week to go before the contract expires, leaders are under pressure to negotiate a deal that will be recommended for ratification by Teamsters member committees. Like so many other craftspeople in a Hollywood downturn, some casting directors are feeling the downward pressure on their salaries, negotiators say. “It’s tough out there,” Telsey says.

When asked what their plans were if no deal was reached by September 30, the group demurred, saying they were taking the talks step by step. Thomas added: “We know where our borders are, and I think we're all willing to stand firm on those borders. We know our worth.”

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