‘The Pitt’ Union Election: PAs Vote to Unionize
Production assistants have emerged victorious in their attempt to unionize The Pitt.
Support staffers on the second season of the HBO Max medical drama opted to join a union aligned with LiUNA Local 724, the Hollywood laborers’ group, in a landmark election that took place Friday. Participating production and office assistants unanimously voted to join the union in the National Labor Relations Board election in a clear show of support for the effort, the labor group announced.
“The PAs on this show are real professionals and we bring our A game every day, so it means a lot that we can now collectively bargain for the same rights and benefits that everyone else gets,” set production assistant Michael McWilliam said in a statement.
Added an anonymous production assistant on the show, “A unanimous vote is as undeniable as the rights we are fighting for. A true ‘union’ show and industry cannot exist with nonunion labor.”
According to the group, The Pitt is the first major TV production where production assistants and assistants have unionized. The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to HBO Max’s parent company, Warner Bros., for comment.
“LiUNA Local 724 is honored to be at the tip of the spear representing those who long have deserved respect and dignity behind the scenes here in Hollywood, but who have so long been denied that recognition in this place we call Hollywood,” said Local 724’s business manager Alex Aguilar in a statement. “This is only the beginning.”
It’s a notable achievement for Production Assistants United, a grassroots organizing movement that began taking shape in 2023, amid industry-wide strikes that brought Hollywood worker experiences to the fore.
The group, first backed by the local laborers’ union in 2024, is primarily advocating for bread-and-butter benefits. Wage raises, access to union health plans, turnaround times and grievance procedures are all on the table. But organizers are also endeavoring to create more structured career pathways for PAs, who do not have many clear options for career advancement.
The current slowdown in production has hit PAs particularly hard, rendering job opportunities scarcer and more competitive. Higher-ups like assistant directors and locations professionals have stepped back down into PA roles to keep working.
The union drive is one way that PAs are responding. Currently, the Production Assistants United movement is selecting projects in active production as organizing targets. Organizers began making headway at The Pittfor instance, by erecting a tent next to a parking lot for the Warner Bros. studio in Burbank. The Pitt crew members — who wear scrubs just in case they are accidentally caught on camera — were easy to spot and focus on.
Organizers went public with The Pitt unionization effort in July. The new union includes all manner of PAs — art department PAs, set PAs, office PAs and others. Assistants to the showrunner, director and executive producers also voted in the election, but their ballots were challenged by employers and no decision has yet been made on their eligibility.
“I think a union is going to bring a lot of continuous, forward progression,” one PA on The Pittwho asked to remain anonymous, told THR in July. “We deserve a seat at the table and unions are supposed to give their members a voice and let them be heard.”
