To Be A Writers' Assistant You Have to Join This Union
- Anton Schettini
- Dec 17, 2024
- 4 min read
When I got my first writers' assistant job, the assistant landscape in Hollywood was the Wild West. As an assistant, there really was nobody looking out for you. You had no union representatives, you had bosses who looked at you as replaceable, and you had HR departments whose loyalties laid with the millionaires on staff, not with you.
This meant a few things for assistants. Toxic environments were rampant, abuses were everywhere, and there was very little to remedy the situation. On top of that, you usually had to settle for minimum wage, or maybe a dollar or two above that if you had moved slightly past the PA drudgery. Writers' Assistants and Script Coordinators could usually expect a $750 or $850 per week rate. After taxes, that was barely paying your rent in Los Angeles.
In fact, at most writers' assistant jobs up until the unionization, I was making as much or less than I would have made if I were on unemployment. This was an untenable system! But all within a few years, some pretty life changing things happened. The California minimum wage shot up, benefitting minimum wage workers all over the state. And writers' assistants and script coordinators became part of a union.
Writers' Assistants and Script Coordinators Join IATSE Local 871
Writers' assistants and script coordinators had attempted many times to join the WGA, the Writers' Guild of America. But those attempts always failed, mostly because the WGA didn't want to take them in. These assistant roles were meant to be seen as training roles for becoming a writer, but that wasn't how the union saw it. So, another union came to the rescue.
In 2018, after a long-fought battle with the AMPTP, the labor group that represents the studios and producers, the writers' assistants and script coordinators joined IATSE Local 871. This required enormous amounts of effort on the part of the union itself and the representatives from the writers' assistants and script coordinators.
This was a major coup for a much-beleaguered group of assistants. These were the hardest working members of the writers' room aside from the showrunner. Yet, they were paid the least (they still are now, but at least it's not minimum wage), and had no protections and bad insurance.
For those just making their way into writers' rooms in these assistant jobs, this means if you get a writers' assistant or script coordinator job, you MUST join IATSE. It is not a choice. However, as I'm going to point out below, the benefits far outweigh the negatives of being part of this union.
First, let's start with the small list of downsides before moving on to the much longer list of upsides...
Downsides of Joining the Union as a Writers' Assistant
The only real downsides are the fees. There is a rather large initiation fee of $1,960, which, compared to other unions in the industry, is nothing. For example, the WGA initiation fee is $2,500 and the DGA (the Director's Guild) is around $13,000 if you're joining the union as a director. The only difference is, if you're joining the WGA, that means you've got some credits that paid you a lot of money. Likewise for the DGA. If you're joining IATSE, that means you've got an assistant job that might just make ends meet. All of a sudden, that $1,960 looms a lot larger.
On top of the initiation fee, there are also a quarterly dues. This rises each year but stands around $163.63. Again, not anything anybody is looking forward to giving away. But, as I'll explain below, the initiation fee and the quarterly dues wind up paying for themselves pretty quickly.
Upsides of Joining the Union as a Writers' Assistant
Let's start with the pay. When I started out, writers' assistants made minimum wage, or maybe a dollar above minimum wage. But as of last year, IATSE helped them negotiate an enormous raise to $26/hour! For anybody toiling in writers' assistant or script coordinator roles for many years, just eeking by, this was a HUGE win. The pay is not huge, but it is, at the very least, livable by "outside of LA" standards, and not livable by "nowhere" standards.
Already, we're getting a lot of bang for our buck in terms of the initiation fee and the quarterly dues. But I haven't even talked about the insurance yet.
IATSE offers very good insurance called MPI (Motion Picture Insurance). When I was on an MPI plan, I basically had zero co-pays and had everything covered. So, if you consider your $163 every 3 months as just covering your insurance, (which it doesn't, it covers way more), you're already coming out ahead. When insurance can run you $300-$500 bucks a month, $163 every three months is an absolute steal.
So, those are the numbers, the things we can quantify. But there's so much more that you can't quantify with statistics. With IATSE, you now have somebody to go to if your rights are being violated at work. This is Hollywood. There has been a small reckoning, but not all the assholes have been outed. There are still tons more jerks and abusers out there. And having a union who knows what they're talking about behind you can make an enormous difference.
What about other assistant jobs?
Unfortunately, showrunner's assistants and production assistants are still without a union. There is a movement now to unionize, but it will likely be many years in the making. The entertainment industry in general has operated as a free for all for way too long. It's time everyone comes under the fold and gets some union protections.
Becoming a Writers' Assistant
If you've found this article, it's likely you're considering getting into the TV writing game, and think becoming a writers' assistant is a good path. Well, you're right. But these are hard gigs to get.
On my website and in my book, I discuss just how to get these jobs, including actual website to go to get your foot in the door and get into the writers' room.
