Freelance casting assistants are seeking to be unionized under the Teamsters.
Teamsters Locals 399 and 817 on Thursday proposed voluntary recognition of freelance casting assistants to the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.
Separately, the union is also seeking the same recognition from Netflix, which is has its own casting director agreement through its production arm, Storybuilders, LLC.
If approved by the studios, the two locals would serve as joint bargaining representation for the casting assistants by including them in the existing unionized casting department.
“Teamsters have long represented the Casting Directors and Associate Casting Directors of Los Angeles and New York. It is reasonable and right to see the Freelance Casting Assistants stand together to seek representation as well,” Lindsay Dougherty, Principal Officer of Teamsters Local 399 and Teamsters Motion Picture Division Director, said in a statement. “By unionizing, the Casting Assistants are able to work towards securing the protections, benefits and compensation they deserve for their work in the Casting department.”
The Teamsters Locals 399 and 817 currently represent nearly 1,000 casting directors and associate casting directors in New York and Los Angeles.
The petition for representation for casting assistants comes as the Teamsters prepare to enter into negotiations with the AMPTP in June.
Those talks will span several agreements, including both the AMPTP Casting Directors Agreement and the Netflix Storybuilders, LLC Agreement. The current casting directors contract is set to expire on September 30.
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