“The PAs on this show are real professionals and we bring our A game every day, so it means a lot that we can now collectively bargain for the same rights and benefits that everyone else gets,” The Pitt set production assistant Michael McWilliam said in a statement (via THR). An anonymous PA added, “A unanimous vote is as undeniable as the rights we are fighting for. A true ‘union’ show and industry cannot exist with nonunion labor.”
The Pitt PAs’ organizing efforts first made headlines in July, when the group requested voluntary recognition for the union and filed a petition for an election with the National Labor Relations Board. They were supported by Production Assistants United, a group that aims to unionize support staff workers nationwide. Per THR, the group will now advocate for changes and benefits regarding wage raises, access to union health plans, turnaround times, and grievance procedures. But organizers would also like to address how “to create more structured career pathways for PAs,” one of the big, if not the biggest, challenges facing assistant-level staff in the industry today.
“LiUNA Local 724 is honored to be at the tip of the spear representing those who long have deserved respect and dignity behind the scenes here in Hollywood, but who have so long been denied that recognition in this place we call Hollywood,” Local 724’s business manager Alex Aguilar said in his own statement. “This is only the beginning.”
