Reality TV stars endure awful pay and working conditions. Let’s change that
Last month, UPS workers, organized by the Teamsters, won a historic agreement that significantly raises the pay and benefits of more than 300,000 workers. In a statement, Fred Zuckerman, the Teamsters general secretary-treasurer, hailed it as “the richest national contract I’ve seen in my more than 40 years of representing Teamsters at UPS”.
There have been at least 72 labor actions across the country this summer, with no signs of slowing down. The struggle for workers’ rights is a tale as old as labor itself. This clash of forces between workers and management is as compelling now as it was more than 100 years ago when Upton Sinclair published The Jungle, a fictional exposé on the very real horrors workers experienced at meat-packing plants. It’s the stuff that makes for excellent cinema – if only Hollywood writers and actors weren’t also striking for fair pay.
From meat-packing to moviemaking, workers across sectors deserve to be paid a living wage and to work in safe, dignified working conditions. When those basic needs aren’t met, workers have a right to withhold their labor via strike. One tried-and-true tool of union busting is pitting workers against each other. Whether finding people to cross the picket lines or threatening to replace jobs with robots, keeping a striking coalition together is essential for success.
Historically, when Hollywood has gone on strike, studios turned to reality TV. Shows such as Cops and America’s Most Wanted exploded into the public consciousness during the 1988 writers strike. The 2007 strike unleashed a tsunami of reality content that still floods our airwaves today. While the studios look to do the same in 2023, this time it might not be so simple.
As a political and labor organizer, when I say “all workers deserve a union”, all truly means all. And as studios look to once again capitalize on the low-cost, high-reward nature of unscripted TV, they’re likely to be met by a more organized and labor-conscious workforce.
It’s no secret that reality TV stars are subject to awful working conditions. Last year, Jeremy Hartwell, a Love Is Blind season two contestant, sued Netflix and show producers for alleged inhumane working conditions that included a 24-hour isolation upon arrival on set and 20-hour work days that included inadequate food and excess alcohol. Other cast members echoed Hartwell’s allegations in an explosive Insider article, with several cast members reporting mental breakdowns and suicidal thoughts after the “traumatic” experience on the show.
Nick Thompson, another Love Is Blind contestant, credits the show’s poor portrayal of him with his employment struggles post-filming. A former vice-president of marketing, Thompson says he has applied to more than 400 jobs, has maxed out his unemployment, savings and 401k, and is at risk of losing his home.
If any other industry treated workers like this, we’d be out in the streets protesting. But after years of low pay and deplorable working conditions, reality stars are beginning to fight back – and they deserve our support.
Workers at several production companies have begun organizing with the Writers Guild of America East, signaling that the lack of industry standards that runs rampant through the genre may be coming to an end. Bethenny Frankel, the former Real Housewives of New York City cast member, took it a step further, floating the idea of a strike, residual pay for cast members and unionizing in an Instagram video this summer.
“Why isn’t reality TV on strike?” Frankel asked. “I got paid $7,250 for my first season of reality TV and people are still watching those episodes. We’ve always been the losers, the ‘I’m up here, you’re down here’ to the actresses and actors.”
Frankel has also gone to Real Housewives’ parent company, NBCUniversal, with allegations of sexual violence and “grotesque and depraved mistreatment of the reality stars and crew members”. (A spokesperson for NBCUniversal told Deadline that the company “is committed to maintaining a safe and respectful workplace for cast and crew on our reality shows”.) Bravo and NBCUniversal say cast members who speak out will not be in violation of their non-disclosure agreements.
Like their scripted counterparts, reality cast members deserve fair pay, fair working conditions, safe working conditions and residuals for their work.
Nelini Stamp is the director of strategy and partnerships for the Working
Families Party, the co-founder of the Resistance Revival Chorus and the founder of the Instagram account Real Housewives of Politics (@rhopol)