Teamsters Court Screen Extras Guild for Merger

Faced with shrunken bargaining power and currently in a fight for its life, the Screen Extras Guild, long the weakest union in Hollywood, is examining a strategy that a number of other unions have pursued in recent years--merger.

The extras’ union, with 6,700 members, has what appears at first blush to be an unusual suitor--the 1.6-million member Teamsters Union, the nation’s largest labor organization.

The two unions have been holding negotiations in recent weeks. Paul Deceglie, president of the Screen Extras Guild (SEG), said in a telephone interview that he favors joining forces with the Teamsters and is awaiting a decision by Jackie Presser, that union’s president, on whether to accept a merger. Duke Zeller, Teamsters director of communications, said in an interview last week that Presser’s decision is likely to come shortly after the first of the year.

‘Ensure Our Existence’

“There’s no doubt that it (a merger) would increase our bargaining power and ensure our existence,” Deceglie said.

The Teamsters are no stranger to Hollywood. They represent about 3,000 studio drivers. Bringing the extras under their umbrella would increase their power in the movie industry.

This is not the first time the Screen Extras Guild has pursued a merger. Twice in recent years, the extras attempted to affiliate with the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), considerably larger with 60,000 members.

The Screen Extras Guild represents actors who stroll through the background and fill out crowd scenes in Hollywood productions, while SAG represents those with speaking roles. More than half the members of SEG also belong to SAG.

Actors Vote It Down

But both times, the membership of SAG voted it down. In 1982, the move was barely defeated. More than 57% of SAG members who cast ballots voted yes, but the union’s constitution requires a 60% yes vote for approval. In 1984, the yes vote was 52%.

Today, SEG is in perhaps its weakest position ever, faced with demands for severe wage cuts and other concessions from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers in its current contract negotiations.

Some in SEG see merger as necessary for survival. They figure that hooking up with the Teamsters will give them muscle they simply do not have now.

Indeed, securing greater bargaining power is the primary goal of most union mergers these days, according to Charles Craypo, professor of economics at Notre Dame University and a specialist in labor relations.

“If unions were not in decline, I don’t think you’d have the attention being paid to potential mergers and the actual number of mergers,” Craypo said in a telephone interview.

Strength Declining

Since 1955, there have been 86 interunion mergers, according to Larry Adams of the Bureau of Labor Statistics. About 35% of those mergers have occurred in the last six years, according to Adams, coinciding with a period in which organized labor’s membership and bargaining power have declined substantially.

Adams said shrinking union treasuries were motivating many of the mergers. “Declining union membership inherently brings declining revenues,” he said.

If SEG’s merger with the Teamsters comes off, it will join the Amalgamated Meat Cutters, the United Furniture Workers, the United Telegraph Workers and a score of other unions who have hooked up with larger unions in recent years.

The breadth of the trend was demonstrated recently when the fiercely independent United Mine Workers held a special convention to get members’ approval to look for a merger partner. At this point, the Denver-based Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers are considered the most likely partner for the mine workers.

Future ‘Is Precarious’

“Brothers and sisters, the future of the union and our members is precarious,” Rich Trumka, United Mine Workers’ president, said in a speech to 1,500 delegates at the special convention in Atlanta.

The mine workers’ union, founded in 1890, once was the nation’s richest and provided key financial assistance to massive union organizing campaigns in the auto, rubber and steel industries in the 1930s. In recent years, however, the decline in domestic coal and steel industries has ravished the union’s ranks.

Less than half of the coal mined in the United States is now mined by union members. And a quarter of the union’s 150,000 active members are unemployed.

The Screen Extras Guild has never been anything near the force the mine workers once were. Chartered in 1946, the extras’ guild has always been the stepchild of Hollywood unions, although its membership has increased steadily. The guild’s ranks have swelled to 6,700 from 4,100 in 1977.

But that has not increased its power. Actors’ unions do not gain strength merely because of an increase in size because of the peculiar nature of the way they get jobs and the irregularity of the work.

Use Casting Agencies

Extras get jobs through casting agencies. A person aspiring to work as a unionized extra must register with an official SEG-designated casting agent in a particular area. Then, after getting a job the individual becomes a member of the union. At any given time, about 80% of SEG’s members are unemployed as extras, and most have to work at other jobs to earn a living. So, merely increasing its membership does not necessarily strengthen the union.

In fact, the position of the extras’ guild has eroded during the last decade as the amount of non-union film and television production has increased. This has heightened the desire of unionized studios and television film makers to lower their costs to better compete with non-union operators.

Non-union extras typically receive $35 a day.

Unionized extras currently earn $91 a day. Under the proposed contract, they would would be paid $68 for an eight-hour work day or $54 for a six-hour shift.

The contract would also significantly reduce the minimum number of guild members who must be hired as extras on film and television productions. Currently, the first 125 extras hired by a film company must be members; extras hired after that may be non-union. Under the proposed contract, only the first 40 extras must be in the guild. In television production, the first 75 extras hired now must be in the guild. That would be reduced to 30 under the new contract.

Voting Under Way

Thus far, sentiment against the contract is reported high within the union. Voting is under way now. Many members say they feel that if the contract is overwhelming voted down, the producers’ alliance will have to return to the bargaining table.

Spokesmen for the producers have declined comment, but knowledgeable Hollywood observers said they think that if the contract is voted down, the producers will simply declare an impasse in bargaining, implement the contract, and, in effect, dare SEG to strike.

Teamsters President Presser then could be faced with the choice of taking on a small union in the midst of a difficult strike. If he decides to pursue the merger, numerous details must be resolved.

“We would have to work out the specifics of any affiliation with the intent that we would remain autonomous,” extras’ union President Deceglie said in an interview.

Presser has not publicly stated why he is interested in a merger with the extras’ union. Some labor and industry sources speculate that the hookup would increase the prestige of the Teamsters.

“The Teamsters have been angling for a toehold in this sector of Hollywood for some time,” said Kim Fellner, executive director of the National Writers Union who previously served for several years as public relations director of SAG.

1984 Affiliation

In November, 1984, the Teamsters took on the 860-member Producers Guild of America as an affiliate. The following year, the Producers Guild threatened to strike, with the support of Teamster drivers, if they were not granted their long-sought goal of collective bargaining recognition by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

The alliance said it would not recognize the producers’ guild as a bargaining unit but agreed to provide its members with health, welfare and pension benefits.

The Alliance made it clear that it was prepared to take a long strike over the recognition issue. So, some in Hollywood think that a Teamster affiliation will not automatically strengthen SEG’s position.

Some Hollywood labor observers said they think SEG has gone public with the merger talks simply to scare the producers into sweetening its contract offer. But one Hollywood labor union source with close ties to SEG said: “I think they’re very serious about it because they have little option. It’s a move of last resort.”