The production assistants organizing movement has gone from one acclaimed show to another.
Organizers on Monday filed for a National Labor Relations Board union election to represent production assistants on Abbott Elementary, the critically lauded ABC sitcom following teachers at an underfunded Philadelphia elementary school. Workers on the show are attempting to join a union affiliated with LiUNA Local 724, the Hollywood laborers’ union that nearly one week prior successfully unionized production assistants on HBO Max’s The Pitt.
The organizers are targeting a small group — 13 production assistants in total, according to the petition for an election, ranging from set PAs to office PAs to costume PAs — but the impact of the attempt could be significant if it succeeds.
The production assistants organizing movement, called Production Assistants United, is still getting its sea legs, having only gone public with one previous organizing drive so far, on The Pitt. That effort proved a success, but it remains to be seen how far the group’s message will resonate in a contractionary industry environment where competition for jobs is fierce.
The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to Warner Bros. Television and 20th Television, which produce the show, for comment.
Though it takes place in the City of Brotherly Love, Abbott Elementary largely shoots on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank. So too does The Pitt, which Production Assistants United took advantage of when it was unionizing that show. Organizers erected a tent near a studio parking lot and made their pitch to crew members in person, an approach they said they wanted to bring to other studios in the future.
The Production Assistants United movement, born out of the 2023 writers’ and actors’ strikes, has largely focused on increasing wages, establishing union health and pension plans and turnaround times for this group. The movement is also seeking to develop more formalized career pathways for a role that is considered entry-level but has become something of a holding cell for some during Hollywood’s contraction.
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