Reality-show writers demand a “Model” employer.
By Miranda Nelson, University of Chicago and Nichole Bauer, George Mason University
Thursday August 24, 2006
When the CW television network denied the writers of “America’s Next Top Model” (ANTM) the right to form a union, it not only made the mistake of interfering with our weekly dose of television melodrama, it also brought workers’ rights to the fore for the catwalk-themed reality show’s 5.3 million viewers, many of them college students. Young Americans often assume that unions are outdated and irrelevant to their lives, and associate unions with factory workers marching in a picket line. So the strike of the “Top Model 12”—highly educated, creative twenty-somethings—represents a departure from many people’s perception of labor organizing.
This strike illustrates that people in a variety of professions, whether they’re janitors in Chicago, nurses in Boise, or reality television writers in Los Angeles, want the same things—to be treated with respect and to earn a decent living for hard work. Unions are a way to achieve these goals. As college students entering the professional workforce saddled with huge amounts of debt—an average of $19,000—we have every reason to be concerned about the erosion of workers’ rights today.
The writers’ demands are basic and conform to industry standards: They want health insurance, a pension plan, a wage minimum, job security, and residuals—a portion of the profits from re-airings of ANTM episodes. The writers of other CW programs such as “Gilmore Girls” and “7 th Heaven” are unionized and receive all of these benefits. And it’s not just writers at other CW shows who receive union recognition. Even other ANTM employees are unionized, from the editing staff to supermodel-turned-host Tyra Banks, who is a member of the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. The ANTM writers are simply asking for parity.
It’s not as though the writers are behaving like the hissy-fit throwing wannabe models featured on ANTM. They simply want respect for their valuable and hard work. Yes, reality shows have writers – we all know that it takes creative talent to coax all of that spontaneity out of real people. Network executives take advantage of the fact that reality writers do not function in the exact manner as writers of traditional scripted shows, giving them sneaky, ambiguous titles such as “associate producer.”
ANTM Writer Clint Catalyst has written several novels. Daniel J. Blau co-wrote a musical. As Blau explained in an interview with the blog Television Without Pity, the writers, or “associate producers,” prepare a script for Banks, search for plotlines, and craft minute-by-minute accounts of each episode, transforming ANTM into the 42 minutes of drama filled footage we tune in to each week. The writers are a pivotal part of the show; without them, there would be mind-numbing hours of the models eating cereal, tying their shoelaces, and brushing their teeth.
ANTM writers chose to show their support for unionization through a democratic, fair, and increasingly popular process called “card check.” Under card check, employees sign cards that indicate their desire to have a union; when a 51 percent majority is reached, the employer recognizes the union and the bargaining begins. It’s simple and effective—especially when 100 percent of workers want a union, as is the case with ANTM. Card check is widely used, with companies as large as Cingular Wireless recognizing their employees’ union through this process. In addition, the ANTM editors’ union was recognized using card check.
But according to Executive Producer Ken Mok, the writers failed to receive union recognition because they did not go through a union election monitored by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). An NLRB election is a red-tape-riddled stalling tactic that requires a burdensome amount of coordination, time, and money to get a union approved. Elections can take 90 days to a year, at which time the current season of ANTM will have wrapped and the writers will have gone home. According to a study by American Rights at Work, a national workers’ rights advocacy group, where the authors of this article interned this summer, elections tend to skew the process in favor of the employer by leaving workers vulnerable to harassment and intimidation from their employers. Shouldn’t the fighting and drama take place on the show, not behind the scenes?
Miranda Nelson is a senior at the University of Chicago. Nichole Bauer is a graduate student at George Mason University. They were summer 2006 interns at American Rights at Work.
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Comments
As one of the Top Model 12, I’d like to thank you for this great article and for your support!
— Kai Bowe - Aug 30, 07:55 PM - #It is a necessity for the everyone to get the same benefits as the rest of the industry that they work in. No one should have to contend with not receiving what is due to them – especially not people who have gone into serious debt for their education and future success. Without the writers and other people who are not recognized ANTM would not be the kind of success that it is and the CW should be ashamed that this is even happening.
— Sheera H. - Aug 31, 12:43 PM - #Reality TV on strike! great news thanks.
— Hooman Hedayati - Aug 31, 01:26 PM - #Hell yeah! Everyone who has a boss needs a union.
P.S. Miranda and Nichole are taking journalism by storm. Watch out.
— Keren - Aug 31, 04:21 PM - #Great article!
— elise - Aug 31, 05:16 PM - #fools will be fools no matter how much they learn
— Mason Lawrence - Aug 31, 08:38 PM - #Unions are going the way of the dodo – part of the reality TV craze is predicated on that fact, since it makes disproportionate use of nonunionized labor.
This is not necessarily a bad thing – it’s an end to the old model of the adversarial worker-boss relationship, and a move toward employment based on the principle of free choice by both parties.
Also, no offense, but if they’re “highly educated” and “creative”, why the hell are they wasting their time working on a reality TV show?
— Joe - Aug 31, 11:04 PM - #“No offense,” but what a petty, pretentious, and most importantly weak argument. Writers for a show shouldn’t be allowed equal unionization rights as other shows because you don’t like it? That’s like saying McDonald’s employees shouldn’t get fair wages because you’re a vegetarian.
I could care less about ANTM and would never watch it myself but having worked in the television industry I can at least acknowledge that working your ass off on a crappy show doesn’t mean you don’t have talent… or that you don’t deserve proper compensation for your efforts.
Failing to understand the concept that people might still work really hard at something even when the result doesn’t benefit you personally is exactly why unions remains necessary in this country.
— August J. Pollak - Sep 1, 12:14 AM - #How can unions even be constitutional? You are forcing the owner of a company to assoicate with a group that with whom he does not want to associate. Sadly people don’t want to follow the constitution.
— Derek Sagner - May 27, 09:37 PM - #