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

KTLA-TV

A reporter with the Los Angeles-based KTLA-TVis 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.

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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."

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