Watch Live: Congressional Hearing on IRS Scandal

Live BlazeCast at 2pm ET: All the fireworks from the IRS Hearing!

Business

L.A. Reporter Sues Hollywood’s Biggest Entertainment Union for Allegedly Trying to Force Her Into Becoming a Member

Feb. 7, 2013 11:07am Becket Adams

KTLA-TV

A reporter with the Los Angeles-based KTLA-TV is suing Hollywood’s largest entertainment union, the Screen Actors Guild American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), according to the Los Angeles Times.

“In a filing with the National Labor Relations Board on Wednesday, Rebecca Hall contends that SAG-AFTRA demanded she become a full union member and pay excessive initiation fees and union dues if she wanted to keep working at KTLA,” the report reads.

Translation: Hall claims that SAG-AFTRA is trying to a) force her to join the union and b) make her to pay “excessive” union dues, which, now that we think about it, is pretty much the standard M.O. in most non-right-to-work states.

“Hall said union officials did not supply information about how her dues would be spent and failed to notify her that she was entitled to opt out of paying dues unrelated to workplace bargaining, according to the complaint, which was filed with the help of attorneys from the National Right to Work Foundation,” the Times report explains.

“The nonprofit group provides legal aid to employees opposed to joining unions,” it adds.

Twitter

SAG-AFTRA currently represents about 165,000 actors, recording artists, talk show hosts, and news broadcasters and is the group behind the annual SAG awards show.

“Instead of informing Ms. Hall of her workplace rights, SAG bosses threatened to have her fired for refusing to join their union and pay full dues,” President of the National Right to Work Foundation Mark Mix said in a statement. “That’s unacceptable, which is why we’re helping her fight back against these heavy-handed tactics.”

Of course, SAG-AFTRA denies Hall’s charges.

“SAG-AFTRA denies these allegations, which are completely without merit,” the union said. “The NLRB is reviewing this and we look forward to the speedy disposition of the charge.”

Follow Becket Adams (@BecketAdams) on Twitter

(H/T: Mediabistro). Featured image: screen grab.

In CONTROL, Glenn Beck presents a passionate, fact-based case for guns that reveals why gun control isn’t really about controlling guns at all; it’s about controlling us. Find out more HERE.

Back to The Blaze »

Comments (58)

ThurstonHowellIV
Posted on February 7, 2013 at 7:37pm
We were always taught that it was the thugs on the payroll of Henry Ford that caused all the violence at the River Rouge plant– that workers just wanted the freedom to bargain collectively. Funny how the early days of union organizing were about freedom to join a union.

Now in many states you are not free to refuse to join the union. Are we really sure that the only thugs worked for Ford?

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- Phattdad144
  Posted on February 8, 2013 at 7:26am
  It is under review at the illegally staffed NLRB? Does not sound like a positive for this poor lady.
  
  Report this comment
- jcldwl
  Posted on March 11, 2013 at 11:05am
  Unions have always been thugs. It’s a money maker for them.
  
  Report this comment
bankerpapaw
Posted on February 7, 2013 at 3:10pm
I literally despise unions. They are desperate to stay viable and they will use intimidation and threats
to survive. I look forward to the day when unions no longer exist.

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- Zuru
  Posted on February 16, 2013 at 12:02am
  By your name i would have to say you are a banker, and bankers have always been against unions. Unions took money away from your kind, and put it into the hands of the workers. Go figure you biased person.
  
  Report this comment
TheIggies
Posted on February 7, 2013 at 2:14pm
Big whoop. This has happened before. She will have to join or get fired. KTLA has an agreement with the union, and if she doesn’t like it she can go report the news on Youtube or something. She doesn’t have a right to work wherever she wants however she wants.

F-ing scab.

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- Judeo_Christian
  Posted on February 7, 2013 at 2:37pm
  Unions are blight on America. Union Thug piece of crap!
  
  Report this comment
- Judeo_Christian
  Posted on February 7, 2013 at 2:41pm
  Unions are a blight on America and Americans. Stinking pile of Sh##!
  
  Report this comment
- PJ Smith in Texas
  Posted on February 7, 2013 at 2:50pm
  “she doesn’t have the right to work” ?
  
  You are a sick individual. That attitude is a mental illness. She is not lying stealing or killing. She doesn’t have to pay protection money to Democrat union hacks and thugs to keep her job and feed herself or her family. The only way unions keep members is promising what they can’t deliver, paying the Democrats to take what they promised from non-members, and threats and violence to any who would oppose them workers or employers..
  Sounds like King George. Remeber what happened to him?
  
  Report this comment
- DrunkGOP_Hack
  Posted on February 7, 2013 at 2:54pm
  “Big Whoop!”
  “F-ing SCAB!”
  
  You’re the type of feces that make this nation a sad state at times.
  
  Let me take a stab at you.
  
  Middle age, white, angry, 30-40 lbs. overweight
  Alcoholic
  over eater
  bed wetting
  bad breath
  yellow teeth
  ex smoker
  chronic JK Arass
  Mean to the core
  bitter
  sore
  piss’d oed about your pathetic life
  wife beater
  union lacky
  slug.
  
  There I think I nailed you.
  
  Have a great day!
  DGH
  
  Report this comment
- progressiveslayer
  Posted on February 7, 2013 at 3:07pm
  Union busting should be a national sport and someday they will be eliminated from our society. They’re bad for business and America and the sooner they go extinct the better they all suck.
  
  Report this comment
- birthright
  Posted on February 7, 2013 at 7:44pm
  If unions are so great for their members, why do they need to force workers to join?
  
  Report this comment
- Balpit
  Posted on February 7, 2013 at 10:42pm
  The Thirteenth Amendment of the United States Constitution:
  “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”
  
  Being forced to work for a union against your will is involuntary servitude.
  
  Report this comment
- Whitrb23
  Posted on February 7, 2013 at 11:34pm
  He is a TROLL; look at his comment history, everything he says is incendiary.
  
  Report this comment
- bigdaddyt46
  Posted on February 8, 2013 at 6:56am
  @progressive slayer
  
  yeahhhhhhhhhhhhh good idea i can finally play a pro-sport, and get paid.
  
  pa announcer:
  
  NOW PLAY ING ING ING FOR THE WAUPUN UN UN UN UNION BUSTERS TERS TERS TERS
  THOMAS AS AS AS HELLMAN AN AN AN.
  LMAO
  
  Report this comment
- MahaGillan
  Posted on February 8, 2013 at 10:15am
  Theiggies—–You’re the biggest moron to ever post here…..unions = commies, you should be the one to renounce your citizenship and crawl back to ChiCom shoreland. or perhaps yoou’d prefer ChavezLand or Castros Cuba. Your dues are making the CommieElites of your organization very wealthy….and you get to clean their soiled britches once the s..t hits the fan.
  
  Report this comment
- walnutportconservative
  Posted on February 11, 2013 at 3:37pm
  Dear Theiggies,
  We choose to argue points without resorting to coarse language. You left winged, brainwashed union slugs are all alike. But… there is hope for All of you. I too was once a pro union parrot. When I saw the light, I began to look at everything in new ways.
  
  Thanks
  Mike
  
  Report this comment
- dordor
  Posted on February 15, 2013 at 9:39am
  Public sector union members are leaving by the thousands aren’t they?
  
  Report this comment
1FreeVoice
Posted on February 7, 2013 at 1:25pm
Most of the people who go up against the unions are not celebrities. They get little attention, except from people already interested in the issue. More power to her. If her lawsuit gets more people in the discussion, it may help.

I liked some of the other posts as well. Charging the unions with extortion and bringing in RICO sounds like a decent idea, but I don’t know the law.

Forcing someone to pay in order to keep a job when the boss likes your work, is …. I was trying to come up with something to compare it to, but nothing fits.

If it was a temp agency taking a cut, that’s different as they are both providing a service connecting buyers and sellers of labor, and have competition from similar providers and also options to look for work yourself without using their service. If you trade your labor for food, (or the money to buy food), that’s no problem. If you have to pay someone for the honor of giving you permission to look for work or keep your job, it isn’t right. You work for pay, you don’t pay to work.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
kentuckypatriot
Posted on February 7, 2013 at 1:11pm
Hold on! I thought the NLRB was null and void, since the court ruled that since zero deemed the congress ” in recess ” when they were not, it was an unconstitutional move! I also know that zero is a lawless president and the rules don’t apply to him, but c’mon. How can the NLRB rule on this?

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
term limits for congress
Posted on February 7, 2013 at 12:53pm
I can tell that the guy sitting next to her in the picture is a member of the union.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
term limits for congress
Posted on February 7, 2013 at 12:52pm
I hope that she is independently wealthy and only works as a hobby. She will be smacked down hard. She’s probably being escorted out of the building by armed security guards right now.

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- PK_SEA
  Posted on February 7, 2013 at 2:05pm
  She’s a hot blonde in LA. I’m sure she has, or can pick up a sugar daddy.
  
  Report this comment
Ghandi was a Republican
Posted on February 7, 2013 at 12:45pm
Harrdy har har– The Unions claim that ‘reporters” are now part of their entertainment Industry. “Actors”
They aren’t even trying to fool you anymore.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
h20sue
Posted on February 7, 2013 at 12:34pm
Unions need to be dismantled. They are disgusting, and troublesome. They keep many ordinary folks from getting a good job. Too overpowering, and need to go! Plus that….Obama supports them and he’s wrong to do so. His nose is into too many things, including telling the Boy Scouts they should allow gays in their organization. If gays boys want to be a boyscout, then they can start their own gay troup and stop gay mom’s from interfering. They want notarity, and media coverage. That’s all there is too it. ‘WE THE PEOPLE’ who believe in our almighty saviour, as well as marriage between a man and woman, ARE TIRED OF THIS NONSENSE.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
FANGS
Posted on February 7, 2013 at 12:05pm
Very soon, Americans will be forced to open fire on Democrats Communist media and Unions. These Traitors are the Domestic terrorists we now have in America. They no longer follow any laws , our Borders are not secure and broken laws by the left are killing our Family members. Democrats are killing America. It must be stoped by force.

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- 1stzookid
  Posted on February 7, 2013 at 12:22pm
  Beware…. Haters of America and all that is American are members of the Democrat Party and a few Republicans. Does anyone else out there realize that the Communist, Socialist, Progressives said many years ago that they would have to take over a political party to destroy America? Well it is here, the Democratic Party is destroying out Constitution and the Bill of Rights,
  
  Where are the American Patriots of today? We need these leaders? It is almost to late.
  
  Report this comment
spfoam1
Posted on February 7, 2013 at 12:05pm
Sue them for as much as possible, then leave the state.

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- el kabongg
  Posted on February 7, 2013 at 2:43pm
  exactly right. go work in a right to work state and let the crooks hire their cronies. that can’t end well and it’s best to be somewhere else.
  
  Report this comment
RaydocX
Posted on February 7, 2013 at 11:52am
but the Unions are a ‘good thing.’ if they aren’t around, the wages are lower, according to proponents.
the unions improve even non members pay by increasing wages… according to proponents.

it’s a convenient theory… it might even be the way it’s supposed to work… i think it did work that way when it was coal miners who were being stepped on by the mine owners…

now it’s government workers, who can’t be fired, and who clear better pensions than their private sector brethren….
it’s sports figures earning a base salary of 400,000 to 700,00 a year to play a game…
it’s auto workers, whose leaders steal the money of investors with Presidential approval, whose impossibly out of touch demands drive the cost of American cars up by thousands, without resopnsibility for quality…
it’s blue collar working men and women for whom any ‘benefit’ in wages is lost in dues, and to whom the union don’t listen, insisting on supporting monetarily politicians who will increase their power, irregardless of what it does to the union workers jobs.

in short, those supporting most unions are not looking at the real world dynamics… they remember the coal miners dying in homes they could never pay off, sons born already indebted to the union store. Unions and the Federal government have become the new coal mine owners, and WE THE PEOPLE are the ones watching our children’s debt grow to insurmountable levels.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
gyro
Posted on February 7, 2013 at 11:49am
was she any good at the job?
and
hope she wins?

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
Chuck7884
Posted on February 7, 2013 at 11:46am
Well Well Well I guess if this is true and news reporters Join the Union they have inadvertantly Quit Being Reporters and now have become Actors!. which is it Actor or Reporter. ?

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- iono12345
  Posted on February 7, 2013 at 1:22pm
  thumbs up on that one
  
  Report this comment
Shellback
Posted on February 7, 2013 at 11:42am
What? I’m shocked that union were like this. I thought they were letting people work.
Sarcasm off.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
woodyee
Posted on February 7, 2013 at 11:35am
I surely hope this is just the proverbial little snowball at a high precipice of the mountain of filth known as SAG-AFTRA. As much as most folks think Hollyweird producers are the black-ballers of the trade, I’m more inclined to believe SAG-AFTRA is the head of the black-ball t-u-r-d.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
nonofmybiznez
Posted on February 7, 2013 at 11:32am
Do you think they wouldn’t have some type of proof to make that claim? Its time unions represent people without bullying them. We the people need to put strict restrictions on unions and how they can spend union dues. They have enjoyed way too much power. You go girl!

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
willingtoupe
Posted on February 7, 2013 at 11:31am
California is not a Right to Work State!

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- naughtycal
  Posted on February 7, 2013 at 11:45am
  But everyone has a Constitutional right to earn a living. And no one has the right to extort a person into paying for the right to feed their families. Civil rights ring a bell
  
  Report this comment
- DougHuffman
  Posted on February 7, 2013 at 11:56am
  @NaughtyGal, “But everyone has a Constitutional right to earn a living.” Citation please.
  
  http://www.archives.gov/exhibits/charters/constitution_transcript.html
  
  Report this comment
- naughtycal
  Posted on February 7, 2013 at 12:47pm
  Doug,
  You got me there I can’t find a single passage that guarantees right to work. I could however fine federal and state legislation that declares extortion to be a felonious criminal practice punishable by imprisonment and fines.
  So instead of going the Constitutional route I’ll take the judical one. For an orginazation to threaten this young lady with loss of her employment which could lead to homeless,starvation,loss of her saving is tantamount to threaten her life if she refuses to pay. And that not even establishing the fact that the practice of forcing citizens to pay for the priviledge of working 40-70 hours a week is the as UnAmerican as the USSR.
  So charge the union bosses with felony extortion and since they are also working in more than one state RICO federal charges as well. Bring the hammer down so hard on them they be afraid to ever steal from another citizen again.
  
  Report this comment
RANGER1965
Posted on February 7, 2013 at 11:31am
Sooo..she gets fired anyway, as the union promised. She’s got a great lawsuit pending but….she’s unemployed and will not get another job as a reporter or journalist in the State of California.

She ends up unemployed, and broke. She finally wins the case, but the union appeals…. Another long year passes…no money, no prospects. She’s really broke now, and barely working.

The union contacts her and gives her a very low number if she will agree to settle the case. She’s broke and desperate, and agrees.

Case Closed.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
Fubared
Posted on February 7, 2013 at 11:23am
Black ball under way.

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- naughtycal
  Posted on February 7, 2013 at 11:32am
  Sounds like she has a winning 500,000,000 law suit coming.
  
  Report this comment
- RLTW
  Posted on February 7, 2013 at 11:34am
  Always best to stand up to the Film Actors Guild.
  
  Report this comment
- naughtycal
  Posted on February 7, 2013 at 11:46am
  RLTW,
  I was thinking the same southpark reference.
  
  Report this comment
MAULEMALL
Posted on February 7, 2013 at 11:22am
The NLRB is the union.

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
Carlinpa
Posted on February 7, 2013 at 11:20am
RE”SAG bosses threatened to have her fired for refusing to join their union and pay full dues,” Who really thinks that the Founding Fathers would have found this acceptable that a small group of people had the right to force an individual to pay for their employment?

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
banjarmon
Posted on February 7, 2013 at 11:19am
I hope this is the wedge that breaks the union’s back!

Report this comment
Log in to Reply Reply
Cavallo
Posted on February 7, 2013 at 11:16am
This is bobo’s board. They will always side with the Unions.

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- DZ-015
  Posted on February 7, 2013 at 11:28am
  This is the board which was just found in federal court to have improper Obama recess appointments of two of its members.
  
  Report this comment
seek.the.truth
Posted on February 7, 2013 at 11:13am
Respect that she is standing up to the union! Hope she hired a body guard.

Report this comment
Log in to ReplyReply
- Small World
  Posted on February 7, 2013 at 11:21am
  Ditto!
  
  Report this comment

It appears that you have Javascript Disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser preferences for a better user experience on TheBlaze. You can not comment without Javascript enabled.