Our Principles
1. Auditions are work.
Auditions are work because they require labor from performers and create profit for employers. They include the work of reading, interpreting, rehearsing, and performing unique material. Auditions then enable studios to cast, develop, and produce movies and TV shows.
When we audition, we bring scripts to life. We make characters real. We provide developmental IP through the unique choices we make as performers. Auditions are crucial to pre-production, allowing producers to make decisions from a place of knowledge and not speculation.
Auditions Are Work is a grassroots organizing group of SAG-AFTRA members. These principles guide our advocacy.
2. Performers’ labor is labor.
Loving what we do doesn’t mean it isn’t work, or that employers don’t profit from it. We refuse to let employers weaponize our passion to justify unpaid labor. And we refuse to allow our union to define our labor as non-work by defining Self Tapes separately from Auditions. Like scores of other workers, performers are freelancers contracted mainly by corporations, and we make it possible for them to generate billions of dollars in annual profits.
3. Unions must protect workers.
SAG-AFTRA is a labor union. It must enforce our contract, provide benefits, and protect our wages. Audition Pay is in our contract, but the union rarely enforces it. Selectively enforcing the contract - or codifying language that does not reflect industry standards - is dangerous and undermines our power. We pay union dues for protections, not exploitation.
4. Performers are powerful.
Studios can’t turn a profit without us. The union cannot elect leaders or approve contracts without our votes. Our membership is 170,000 strong. Our workforce is irreplaceable. Together, we have everything we need to demand fair pay and respect.