Answers from The Working Actor

9 Unions

There are two major labor unions representing actors: The Actors’ Equity Association (AEA)—commonly referred to as simply “Equity,” which has jurisdiction over union stage productions, and The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA), which covers union film, television, and internet projects.

Membership in actors’ unions has many advantages, including wage minimums, safety regulations, and the potential to qualify for health insurance. More importantly, membership renders an actor eligible to work on union projects.

However, union membership comes with an important restriction: once actors join, they can no longer work on nonunion projects. In SAG-AFTRA, this is known as Global Rule One, which ...