Union Busters in the Shadows of Hollywood’s Bright Lights

As the summer sun beats down on the production lots of Chicago Med and Chicago Fire, Scabby the Rat, an inflatable union stalwart, has taken up residence outside the cameras’ gaze. The rat perches atop a makeshift stage in front of two production locations, bearing witness to the labor dispute brewing within.

The union representing production assistants, LiUNA Local 724, is protesting what they claim are broken promises on guaranteed work hours. After these workers ratified their first contracts with NBCUniversal’s Universal Television subsidiary in early July, those guarantees disappeared, sending weekly take-home pay plummeting for some by as much as 43 percent.

The film and television industry has a long history of union-busting tactics and employer resistance to workers’ demands for fair compensation and benefits. The production assistants in question were among the lowest-paid workers on these sets, with hourly wages hovering around $19.93. However, it was not just their wages that mattered but also the guaranteed work hours, which provided overtime pay and a semblance of job security.

By stripping away these guarantees, NBCUniversal has effectively gutted the livelihoods of its production assistants, forcing them to navigate a precarious gig economy on the outskirts of Hollywood’s gleaming towers. The union claims that NBCUniversal conveyed it would not restore the previous hour guarantees and that the new expense of paying into a union health plan factored into this decision.

This raises questions about whether the company is attempting to punish its employees for exercising their right to organize. Federal labor law prohibits employers from unilaterally changing terms and conditions of employment without bargaining with the union first, unless the union has obviously waived that right. It’s unclear at this point whether NBCUniversal will be able to sidestep these regulations or face the consequences of their actions.

The union’s claims take on added significance when compared to the treatment afforded their non-unionized counterparts on Chicago P.D., which has retained its 12-hour guarantees and recently handed out a three percent raise after two seasons without a pay bump. This disparity raises concerns about unequal pay for equal work, with NBCUniversal pitting union and non-union workers against each other in a zero-sum game.

As the labor dispute continues to unfold, it’s worth keeping an eye on what comes next. Will LiUNA Local 724 file an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board? Will NBCUniversal attempt to silence its production assistants through intimidation or economic coercion? One thing is certain: Scabby the Rat may be inflatable, but he’s not going anywhere anytime soon.

In this struggle for fair compensation and job security in one of America’s most iconic industries, we are reminded that even in the bright lights of Hollywood, there are still shadows to fight.