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American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) National Office Records

Call Number

WAG.281

Dates

1930-2023, ongoing, inclusive
; 1952-1985, bulk

Creator

American Federation of Television and Radio Artists
American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (Role: Donor)
Gautier, Janette (Role: Donor)

Extent

174 Linear Feet in 174 record cartons
12 websites in 12 archived websites.

Language of Materials

Materials are in English.

Abstract

The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), founded in 1952, is a union of approximately 70,000 members representing professional actors, journalists, dancers, singers, announcers, hosts, comedians, and disc jockeys from numerous media industries, including television, radio, cable, sound recordings, video productions, commercials, audio books, non-broadcast industrials, interactive games, internet productions, and other digital media. The union traces its origins to the 1937 founding of the American Federation of Radio Artists (AFRA) with 400 members and locals in New York and Los Angeles. In 2012, after numerous attempts, AFTRA and the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) successfully merged to form SAG-AFTRA. This guide describes the records of AFTRA's National office from its founding through 1990. The collection consists of photographs, memoranda, correspondence, meeting minutes, financial records, formal agreements, recorded negotiations, constitutions and by-laws, and legal files documenting claims and arbitrations. The materials document the union's daily operations and governance, in addition to broader labor and social issues through the lens of entertainers and performers, including civil rights, anti-communism investigations, and workers' rights and protections. The collections also includes materials documenting the union's relationships and interactions with related domestic and international guilds and federations for performers.

Historical Note

The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), founded in 1952, is a union of approximately 70,000 members representing professional actors, journalists, dancers, singers, announcers, hosts, comedians, and disc jockeys from numerous media industries, including television, radio, cable, sound recordings, video productions, commercials, audio books, non-broadcast industrials, interactive games, internet productions, and other digital media.

The union traces its origins to several preceding organizations representing members of these disparate groups of performers. Following the 1935 National Labor Relations Act, radio performers in Los Angeles and New York formed the Radio Actors Guild and Radio Equity (an organization under the umbrella of Actors' Equity), respectively. On August 16, 1937, the two organizations combined to form the American Federation of Radio Artists (AFRA) after being granted a charter by the Associated Actors and Artistes of Americas (also known as The Four A's). The union began with locations in Los Angeles and New York; by December of 1937, AFRA had over 2,000 members, including 70% of all radio artists, and had added third location in Chicago, the center for soap opera production. Prominent members of the union's early governance included Eddie Cantor, who served as the first president; inaugural National Executive Secretary Emily Holt; and Broadway actor George Heller, who acted as Ms. Holt's assistant. AFRA members and major radio performers, including Edgar Bergen, Jack Benny, and Bing Crosby successfully negotiated with NBC and CBS on the first collectively bargained agreement in the field, resulting in significant wage increases.

Disputes over television performers led the Associated Actors and Artistes of America to create the Television Authority (TVA), an amalgam of the major existing performing arts unions, on April 16, 1950. In 1951, while jurisdiction was held in abeyance, AFRA negotiated the first Phonograph Recording Code with major recording labels. On September 17, 1952, TVA and AFRA merged to create a new union known as the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), with nearly 10,000 members and Heller as the organization's head. During the 1954 Network Television Code negotiations, the union negotiated the AFTRA Pension and Welfare Plan (later known as the AFTRA Health and Retirement Funds), which stands as the industry's first benefits package and was written into all succeeding agreements. Although early television broadcasts featured live performers, technological advancements in the late 1950s allowed for networks to broadcast repeating programs, leading AFTRA to negotiate the first formula for the payment of replayed performances. These agreements formed the basis of the industry understanding of residuals and syndication. In 1960, AFTRA and the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) held their first joint negotiations on the subject of television commercials.

The mid-20th century entertainment industry blacklist (also referred to as the Hollywood blacklist) that denied entertainment professionals employment because of their political beliefs or associations, real or suspected, created strife and dissent within AFTRA. The New York Local was especially vocal over the issue; their motions were sent to a national vote, but all failed. In 1955, the union passed a national referendum stating that any member who refused to cooperate with any government committee investigating alleged disloyalty or subversive activities "shall be subject to the charge that he is guilty of conduct prejudicial to the welfare of AFTRA" and may be "fined, censured, or expelled from the union by the member's local." In October 1997, AFTRA formally apologized for this position.

In 1974, conservative author and public intellectual William F. Buckley harshly attacked AFTRA's union shop agreements, the basis of union organizing. The U.S. Supreme Court, however, declined to hear the case. A similar but more serious threat came from a lawsuit filed in 1981 by Tuesday Productions, a San Diego based non-union jingle house. They filed anti-trust charges against AFTRA for attempting to organize performers. The settlement drove the union into Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 1982 from which they emerged in 1983 with a verdict that upheld "the unions' right to order members not to work for employers who refuse to enter into collective bargaining agreements."

In succeeding decades, AFTRA signed new agreements in cable, interactive media, and digital performances. Major strikes in 1967 and 1978 occurred when negotiations for various types of contracts broke down. The union, along with SAG, staged a six-month strike against commercial advertisers in 2000. On March 30, 2012, after numerous attempts, the two unions merged, forming SAG-AFTRA.

Source:

http://www.sagaftra.org/history/aftra-history/aftra-history

Arrangement

The collection consists of ten series:

I: Constitutions, By-Laws, Agreements, Codes and Contracts

II: Administrative Files

III: Conventions

IV: Locals

V: Networks

VI: Negotiations

VII: Merger

VIII: Charges, Claims, and Arbitrations

IX: Other Unions/Guilds/Federations

X: Archived Websites

Scope and Contents

The records of National Office of American Federation of Television and Radio Artists cover the period from its founding as a radio only union in 1937, through the addition of television to its name and jurisdiction in 1952, up to 1990. This collection consists of meeting minutes, constitutions, by-laws, contracts, correspondence, handbooks, newsletters, written agreements, financial statements, programs and records of the union's annual convention, and legal files documenting cases involving members' rights, benefits, and protections. The materials document the union's daily operations and governance, in addition to broader labor and social issues through the lens of entertainers and performers, including civil rights, anti-communism investigations, and workers' rights and protections. The collection also includes materials documenting the union's relationships and interactions with related domestic and international guilds and federations for performers.

Conditions Governing Access

Materials are open without restrictions.

Conditions Governing Use

Any rights (including copyright and related rights to publicity and privacy) held by the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists were transferred to New York University in 2008 by the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. Permission to publish or reproduce materials in this collection must be secured from Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Archives. Please contact tamiment.wagner@nyu.edu, (212) 998-2630.

Preferred Citation

Identification of item, date; American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) National Office Records; WAG 281; box number; folder number; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.

To cite the archived website in this collection: Identification of item, date; American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) National Office Records; WAG 281; Wayback URL; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives,, New York University.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

Gift of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists National Office, 2008. The accession number associated with this donation is 2008.045.

Donated by the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists National Office, 2008. The accession number associated with this gift is 2008.045.

A small amount of material pertaining to the SAG-AFTRA merger was donated by Jannette Gautier in 2002. There is no acccession number associated with this gift.

http://www.aftra.com/ was initially selected by curators and captured through the use of The California Digital Library's Web Archiving Service in 2007 as part of the Labor Unions and Organizations (U.S.) Web Archive. In 2012, https://www.sagaftra.org/ was added to the web archive. In 2015, these websites were migrated to Archive-It. Archive-It uses web crawling technology to capture websites at a scheduled time and displays only an archived copy, from the resulting WARC file, of the website. In 2019, https://sagaftra.foundation/ was added. The accession number associated with this website is 2019.139. In August 2020 https://www.youtube.com/user/SAGAFTRA/videos/ and http://youngperformers.sagaftra.org/ were added. The accession number associated with these websites is 2021.039. In December 2020 https://members.sagfoundation.org/programs/ was added. The accession number associated with this 2021.060. In June 2021, https://servicesagaftra.custhelp.com/app/sh/home/ was added. The accession number associated with this website is 2022.003. In February 2023, https://servicesagaftra.custhelp.com/app/home/ was added. The accession number associated with this website is 2023.019. In March 2023, https://sagaftra.libsyn.com/ was added. The accesion number associated with this website is 2023.032. In summer 2023, https://asa.sagaftra.org/ and https://www.sagaftrastrike.org/ were added. The accession number associated with these websites is 2023.062. In September 2023, https://www.youtube.com/@SAGAFTRA/videos/ was added. The accession number associated with this website is 2023.079.

Take Down Policy

Archived websites are made accessible for purposes of education and research. NYU Libraries have given attribution to rights holders when possible; however, due to the nature of archival collections, we are not always able to identify this information.

If you hold the rights to materials in our archived websites that are unattributed, please let us know so that we may maintain accurate information about these materials.

If you are a rights holder and are concerned that you have found material on this website for which you have not granted permission (or is not covered by a copyright exception under US copyright laws), you may request the removal of the material from our site by submitting a notice, with the elements described below, to the special.collections@nyu.edu.

Please include the following in your notice: Identification of the material that you believe to be infringing and information sufficient to permit us to locate the material; your contact information, such as an address, telephone number, and email address; a statement that you are the owner, or authorized to act on behalf of the owner, of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed and that you have a good-faith belief that use of the material in the manner complained of is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law; a statement that the information in the notification is accurate and made under penalty of perjury; and your physical or electronic signature. Upon receiving a notice that includes the details listed above, we will remove the allegedly infringing material from public view while we assess the issues identified in your notice.

Separated Materials

AFTRA Magazine and Stand-By! newsletter were separated to the library collection.

Related Archival Materials

Actors' Equity Association Records (WAG 011)

Associated Actors and Artistes of America Records (WAG 110)

American Guild of Musical Artists Records (WAG 209)

American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) New York Local Records (WAG 282)

Collection processed by

K. Kevyne Baar with Ellie d'Eustachio, Aidan Kinney, Kelsey Marksteiner

About this Guide

This finding aid was produced using ArchivesSpace on 2023-10-10 12:59:45 -0400.
Using Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language: Description is in English.

Processing Information

Collection was arranged into a series structure that reflects the union's major activities and functions. When present, meeting minutes, constitutions, by-laws, agreements, administrative files, and arbitrations were grouped together. Publications were separated and duplicate materials were discarded. Records were rehoused in acid-free boxes and folders. Original folder titles, when present, were transcribed, although additional information has been supplied by the archivist and appears in brackets. In 2014, the archived websites were added as Series X. Additional websites are added in 2019, 2021, and 2023.,

Revisions to this Guide

October 2023: Edited by Nicole Greenhouse to reflect additional administrative information and added archived websites

Repository

Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives
Elmer Holmes Bobst Library
70 Washington Square South
2nd Floor
New York, NY 10012