Except in a few special circumstances, most performer unions require (insofar as the law allows) their members to work with other union members; they are usually, except in special circumstances, discouraged from acting with nonprofessional groups. These rules are perfectly proper and are designed to protect professional actors from exploitation. But a novice in the field has relatively little chance of keeping busy in professional companies. Often amateur, community, and school groups offer the newcomer valuable experience through work which the newcomer may not be free to take if he or she is a union member.
What Do the Unions Do?
The unions do not get you jobs. They do protect you in your relations with employers. They negotiate and police enforceable contracts, which guarantee specific minimum salaries, and provisions for extra payment for extra work. They obtain and enforce certain working conditions that the members want and they guarantee that salaries will be paid. In addition, SAG, AFTRA, and Equity all have pension and health plans, financed by employer contributions. These were hard-fought-for, long in coming, and are of great significance. The purpose of these plans is to provide health insurance benefits to covered members and to offer them some measure of financial security, based on a system of tenure, seniority, earnings, and continuity of employment.
AFTRA offers several scholarships to eligible members or their children. These include some that were established in the memory of past union leaders and are available for any course of study. There is also one provided specifically for the study of any branch of music, and one offering aid for vocal coaching. These are administered through the AFTRA Memorial Foundation. AFTRA's George Heller Memorial Scholarship Fund also provides a number of college scholarships to eligible AFTRA members or their children for general study, study of the performing arts, and labor relations. AFTRA and SAG also have established programs for aiding chemically dependent members.
The unions negotiate life insurance plans for actors, offer group medical insurance, legal counseling, and some casting information. They publish magazines and newsletters that are mailed periodically to members and offer assistance on such problems as unemployment insurance and relations with agents. These organizations also attempt to influence legislation that will assist the performing arts and artists on civic, state, and national levels. This is done through membership in the Department for Professional Employees of the AFL-CIO. In addition, members offer suggestions for new contracts and serve on negotiating committees, thereby having an actual hand in establishing their own wages and working conditions.
Crucial to the unions' ability to enforce their contracts and protect actors is the actors' understanding of their obligations and duties, not only as professional performers, but as union members. Unhappily, too few actors understand this, and they are often reminded, painfully and suddenly, that their union membership is a two-way street: they derive enormous benefits and protection, but they must also comply with all terms of the contracts they have signed. Unions protect employers, too, and woe to the actor who fails to fulfill her or his contractual obligations.
Not long ago Equity fined one of its members--a star-more than $9,000 for failing to honor a contract. Other members, too, have been disciplined by their unions for leaving producers and fellow actors in the lurch. Such conduct is considered unforgivable in every branch of theatre, and the governing boards of the unions, customarily lenient and generous with their fellow performers, will not tolerate it.
The range of services provided by actors' unions is wide-from the disbursement of residual payment checks by AFTRA and SAG to the listing of available apartments in New York on the bulletin board of Actors' Equity. Each union has booklets, pamphlets, and other information available to new and old members, explaining its rules, services, and jurisdiction, and telling whom to see for other specific information. The first thing you should do when you join a union is to get all this information and read it. Whenever an actor gets into trouble with respect to a job or the union, it is almost always caused by ignorance of the rules.
The unions are anxious to be consulted by members with questions, no matter how trivial or irrelevant their questions may seem. But often, the union does not find out about a problem in time to prevent it. These organizations can be effective only if their members cooperate. Too often, newcomers who do not know the historic values and traditions of the acting profession consider themselves too "artistic" to be concerned with mundane things like rules--or else they are too lazy, too selfish, or so anxious to work in a competitive profession that they are willing to sacrifice the mutual gains won by others through many years of work.
How are the Unions Governed?
While there are numerous differences between the government and administration of the unions, the foundations of their governments are essentially the same. Each has an elected board of directors or council, which is always composed of active members who serve without compensation. In this respect, the actor unions are different from other labor organizations in that the presidents, officers, and board members of Equity, SAG, and AFTRA receive no pay.
These governing boards meet regularly to determine matters of policy. The policies are executed and administered by a paid staff of executives.
