Story Time: Tafting Her Hartley

This story is courtesy of Backstage: Unscripted. It's a short anecdote about one gals unbelievable luck to strike Taft Hartley'd gold.

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The breakdown was for a Bank of America webisode in which they’d be talking about student banking. I went in for an audition and they hired me. I was told to show up at California State University in Northridge at 8 am – on my birthday. I took the gig because hey, it was some money and I had nothing else to do that day. 22 isn’t that special anyways.

I didn’t know what to expect at all. All I knew was that I was getting paid $64 – not much, but who’s complaining? There were about 40 college age looking actors there. Half were SAG, half were non union. We were shuffled around a bit and treated like cattle. There were no bathrooms or water bottles in sight. What had I gotten myself into?

I quickly made friends with 2 other background actors. They began to tell me how they got into SAG – by doing extra work and getting vouchers. They told a story of how one friend they knew did her first job as an extra and was Taft Hartley’d. They were so jealous of her because she got to join right off the bat and they had to wait months.

One of the wranglers announced that they needed 12 people to sing a song for one of the segments. No one was raising their hand, and finally I decided to volunteer. I love singing and no one else seemed too eager to do it. She finally got her 12 and we were told that we would have to write a short song or rap about ways in which we’ve saved or spent money.

In the midst of us writing our songs and choosing the tracks we would sing with, a SAG representative dropped by the set to check things out. He stated that he never really comes out to these things, but decided to today. Someone in our group mentioned that we were asked to sing and could we get a bump – a salary raise – since we were doing something not in our contract.

The SAG representative made a call to the office and came back with the greatest news – we were now considered featured performers and would have to sign new contracts, SAG contracts, and those who were not in the union would be Taft Hartley’d. And my old $64 payday? Out the window. We’d be getting checks for $800! Was it fate that this man came to our set that day? I think so. He was like our guardian angel.

It turned out to be a wonderful birthday. I ended up being “that person” that gets Taft Hartley’d on their first day of extra work. The 12 of us were floating. If no one had spoken up, this would’ve gone under the rug and boy were the producers pissed when they found out we had talked to the SAG rep. Just shows you – always ask questions!

While I am still waiting to see the segment online, I have received my wonderful check. But how do I proceed about this Taft Hartley business?!

Backstage: Unscripted - Funny Story