Background Artists Coalition

Background Artists flesh out the portrait for an iconic film scene at The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Welcome to the Background Artists Coalition website.

About:

Here you will learn about the invaluable role Union Background Artists play in helping writers, directors, producers and principals bring to life their creative visions on screen. 

And whether it’s a big-budget Hollywood Blockbuster; a low-budget Indie Film; your favorite long-running Network Television Series; a popular Cable TV Series or a brand new Web Series, make no mistake, without professional Union (Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists “SAG-AFTRA”) Background Artists - many of whom have extensive experience and training for stage & screen - the audience would see nothing but an empty museum; an empty train car; an empty Yankee Stadium; an empty hospital hallway or an empty Grand Central Station in these popular television shows and movies. 

So, unless producers plan to abandon Union Background Artists all together - and, thereby, bust the Union, as Background Artists are the Majority Membership of SAG-AFTRA - or if WGA Union Writers decide to undercut Union Background Artists, by changing the narrative and only writing scenes that are set mostly indoors and require no actors other than the Principals, producers can not make the donuts without us.

Background Artists add dramatic depth & texture to film & television scenes

And while Background Artists are just that - the blur that fills the space in the background of a scene - the value we add to any production is incalculable. In other words, we are the secret sauce; a bit of the magic that helps the stars to shine and the story to be told. 

Just imagine the 1999 remake of The Thomas Crown Affair with an empty museum. Or think about what it would have looked like had Emily Blunt been riding an empty train in and out of Manhattan in the film version of Girl on a Train.

Or try and picture what the long-running procedural drama Law & Order (any iteration) would look like if the courtroom scenes were empty, but for the Principals, with no jury and no one sitting in the courtroom gallery.

The fact is that film & television productions could not be made with any sort of verisimilitude without the hard work and dedication of talented Background Artists.

Background Artists add verisimilitude to scenes set in any historic period

And yet, for years, the Screen Actors Guild - our Labor Union which also known as SAG-AFTRA and is an AFL-CIO Affiliate - has failed to vigorously advocate on our behalf. Instead, the Screen Actors Guild, has repeatedly given away our jobs to Non-Union Actors by allowing film and television producers to dramatically reduce the minimum number of Union jobs required for production Contracts across all media, thereby, undermining - not only our opportunity to work - but also our opportunity to access our own Union Health Insurance Plan (into which we all contribute) as we can not work Non-Union jobs. 

In perhaps one of the most blaring examples of the serious harm SAG-AFTRA has caused to Union Background Artists - and in a move that can only be characterized as a stunning slap in the face to the entire American Labor Movement and all the gains hard won for American workers over the years by our Union Affiliate, the AFL-CIO - the Screen Actors Guild actually went so far as to endorse film and television Production Contracts that allow producers to pay UNION Background Artists MINIMUM WAGE.

Obviously, no one needs to join a Union to be paid MINIMUM WAGE. For Minimum Wage is, by definition, the legal MINIMUM that an employer must pay his or her workers, as mandated by law, whether approved by the legislature in Albany, NY or the legislature in Sacramento, CA.

Making matters worse, as though the Screen Actors Guild were determined to drive the final proverbial stake through the heart and dignity of Union Background Artists throughout the American film and television industry, SAG-AFTRA Leadership has subverted the most fundamental tenets enshrined in the American Labor Movement, as our Labor Union went so far as to endorse Production Contracts that allow film & television producers to pay Union Background Artists NOTHING for their work: That’s right. Not even deferred payment. Just. Straight-up. FREE LABOR.

It should go without saying that any Union contract term that allows film & television producers to pay Union Background Artists NOTHING for their work is a contract term that NO American Labor Union should EVER endorse. But, given the fact that SAG-AFTRA did endorse such predatory contracts when our Union Leadership widely encouraged (with glossy postcard mailers and an energetic online campaign all paid for by our Membership Dues) a ratification of the 2017 Contract, while deliberately concealing these predatory contracts from the Membership, unfortunately, we have no choice but to expressly remind our Union of its legal duty and to whom it is legally obligated. 

SAG-AFTRA’s official actions - defined by law as the Union’s endorsement of the 2017 Contract, as described above, which deliberately buried these predatory contracts like land mines hidden so deeply, so as not to be visible until they have already exploded, shattering the lives and livelihood of thousands of the most vulnerable among the Majority Membership - in relation to both types of predatory Contracts (whether allowing film & television producers to pay Union Background Artists Minimum Wage or allowing film & television producers to pay Union Background Artists NOTHING) is a wholesale abdication of its duty to vigorously, and in good faith, advocate for fair pay and safe working conditions on behalf of all of its dues-paying Membership.

For any Union to endorse (multiple) Contracts that allow its dues-paying Membership to be paid no more than Minimum Wage and, in some cases, allow film and television producers to pay Union Background Artists NOTHING is unconscionable and antithetical to the most fundamental principals of Organized Labor.

Background Artists add atmosphere & context to what an audience sees in film & on television

Ironically, in 2016 - a full year before the SAG-AFTRA Contract in effect at that time would expire - SAG-AFTRA Leadership promised the Background Artists Coalition in writing to ask for a Raise for Background Artists in the 2017 SAG-AFTRA Contract Negotiations. But, notwithstanding its written promise to do so, our Union failed to keep that promise in 2017. And after an initial hollow excuse was offered for its broken promise - an excuse that amounted to nothing more than bureaucratic doublespeak - when challenged, SAG-AFTRA Leadership finally admitted to the Background Artists Coalition, in writing, that the Union failed to even ask for a Raise for Background Artists in the 2017 Contract Negotiations.

So, other than the historical, glacially-paced, nominal cost of living increase (less than 3%) - which does not even reflect an actual cost of living increase in NYC or Los Angeles where most TV & Film production work is done - Union Background Artists have not received an actual Raise for many years.

And despite the fact that we constitute the Majority Membership of the Screen Actors Guild, we are sorely under-represented in SAG-AFTRA Contract Negotiations and remain disproportionately under-represented on our Union's National Board - yet another disgraceful example of the powerful minority elites keeping down the powerless majority membership who are entitled to a proportionate number of seats on the National Board so as to reflect the needs and will of the actual working membership as opposed to those who have well paid Agents, Managers and the power of their own names with which to strike a generous negotiation for themselves and, therefore, do not need to invoke the power of the Union in order to receive fair pay for their work as Background Artists do.

Background Artists help to evoke the character, mood & energy of a scene

So because we are not even in the room for our own Union Contract Negotiations, much less at the bargaining table, the Screen Actors Guild has for years taken Union Background Artists for granted (or worse), repeatedly using Union Background Actors - the low-hanging fruit - as a bargaining chip, giving away Union Background Jobs and acquiescing to NO ACTUAL RAISE for Union Background Artists for too many years to even count.

As a result, for far too long, Union Background Artists - especially women Actors over the age of 40, who have precious few employment opportunities - have disproportionately suffered harm at the hands of our own Union as a result of SAG-AFTRA's indiscriminate and completely unnecessary giveaways to film and television producers who are already the beneficiaries of generous tax breaks and a booming industry.

Meanwhile, at the same time that the Screen Actors Guild was busy giving away our Union jobs at the so-called Bargaining Table, in a merciless machiavellian move, our Union simultaneously RAISED the threshold SAG-AFTRA-income required to allow Union Members to access our own Union Health Insurance Plan, into which we all contribute whether or not we ever have the opportunity to benefit from the SAG-AFTRA Health & Pension Fund, thereby preventing thousands of Union Background Artists from having the opportunity to access our own Union Health Insurance Plan. 

In other words, at the same time that our own Union blew a hole right through the probability for Union Background Artists to work (e.g. The SAG-AFTRA Contract for the hit show OITNB, allowed producers to reduce the number of Union Background Roles to a pitiful twelve [12] where television production contracts had previously required nearly ten times that number) and, thereby, have a fighting chance to actually meet the threshold income necessary to access our own Union Health Insurance Plan, the Screen Actors Guild simultaneously moved the goal post on our opportunity to access life-saving medical tests like Pap smears, Prostate Exams, Mammograms, etc. by demanding a higher earned income in order to be eligible to access our own Union Health Insurance Plan, into which we all contribute whether or not we will ever have the opportunity to benefit from it; thereby, putting out of reach for a substantial portion of the Union Membership to access our own Union Health Insurance Plan, while continuing to take our money (Health & Pension contributions) to help underwrite the notoriously underfunded SAG-AFTRA Health & Pension Fund. 

And while this scheme, that has the lowest paid Members of the Union - Background Artists -subsidizing SAG-AFTRA’s financial and legal obligations under the perennially underfunded SAG-AFTRA Health & Pension Fund, from which many of us will never be able to benefit (thanks to our Union giving away so many of our jobs in the 2017 Contract, in particular, as discussed above) may ultimately help the Screen Actor's Guild dig itself out of the financial hole created, in part, by SAG-AFTRA's mismanagement, corruption and embezzlement of our Union’s Health & Pension Fund, that’s some pretty cruel accounting that balances SAG-AFTRA’s fiscal irresponsibility on the backs of the most vulnerable members of the Union. 

Without Background Artists this scene shot at a NYC Museum would look empty & hollow

So after years of the Screen Actors Guild neglecting its Majority Membership, the Background Artists Coalition united to advocate for ourselves by reaching out to our publicly elected officials - including opening an ongoing dialogue with the NYC Council Speaker, Corey Johnson, with whom we continue to advocate for the NYC Council to pass legislation to protect Background Artists from the often Neo-Dickensian unsafe working conditions on film and television sets throughout NYC - and by reaching out with messages like this one asking for the public's support in our efforts for fair pay, proportionate representation and a reasonable opportunity to access our own Union Health Insurance Plan.

Thanks for listening! We really appreciate you stopping by to learn more about the Background Artists Coalition and we hope you will share this post with anyone you feel might support our campaign for fair pay and a reasonable opportunity to access your own Union Health Insurance Plan.

Our Mission:

Because Union Background Artists have for many years been laboring under a deficient Hourly Wage which is currently $5.30 BELOW the 2019 National AVERAGE Hourly Wage in the United States, and which Hourly Wage is currently more than $14 BELOW the AVERAGE Hourly Wage in the film & Television Industry in NYC, where much of the work on film & television production takes place, the Background Artists Coalition is advocating for a $35 per hour Union Wage for Background Artists in all Production Contracts across all media.

And because our Union, SAG-AFTRA, has for years, given away more and more of our jobs - by allowing producers to sharply reduce the Minimum number of Union Background Roles required for production contracts in film, television & New Media, thereby, undercutting our opportunity for jobs, while simultaneously raising the threshold at which we can qualify to access our own Union Health Insurance Plan into which all SAG-AFTRA Members contribute, thereby, putting health care out of reach for a large segment of the Union’s Majority Membership, we are also advocating for a 40% Increase in the Minimum Number of Union Background Roles required for all production contracts across all media, so that Union Background Artists have a reasonable opportunity to work and to qualify for our own Union Health Insurance Plan into which we we all contribute.

How You Can Help:

We greatly appreciate your support in our efforts to advocate for fair pay and safe working conditions for all Union members.

But one doesn’t have to be a member of the Actors Union to support the goals of the Background Artists Coalition.

If you believe in fair pay; a reasonable opportunity to access one's own Union Health Insurance Plan; proportionate representation and safe working conditions, you are our kind of people.

And since Non-Union Background Artists benefit from each gain made for Union Background Artists (e.g., production would not even feed Non-Union Background Artists, but for the fact producers are required under our contract, to provide Union Actors with a meal after six hours, so that we don’t pass out from the often grueling working conditions under which we labor) - or as in the case of Union Background Artists, each restoration of what our Union has given away to producers over the years - we do hope Non-Union Background Artists across the globe will stand in solidarity with your Background Actor Sisters and Brothers in support of our just cause.

Thank you all for taking the time to learn about the Background Artists Coalition and for reading about our ongoing struggle for fair pay; a restoration of the Union Background Artist jobs given away by the SAG-AFTRA Leadership; a reasonable opportunity to access our own Union's Health Insurance Plan; proportionate representation on our Union's National Board and elsewhere at SAG-AFTRA and safe working conditions in film, television and New Media productions all across our nation.