AEMI Sign-on Statement for Record of Senate HELP Committee Hearing on Portable Benefits
July 17, 2025
The Honorable Bill Cassidy Chairman,
U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
428 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
The Honorable Bernie Sanders Ranking Member,
U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions
428 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Chairman Cassidy and Ranking Member Sanders,
The below listed Arts, Entertainment, and Media Industries (AEMI) coalition unions within the Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO (DPE) urge the committee to reject any legislation that would make it easier for employers to misclassify workers or evade their responsibilities under federal and state workplace laws.
The AEMI coalition consists of national unions that represent professionals in the arts, entertainment, and media industries. By virtue of its size and scope of coverage, the AEMI is the leading voice in the labor movement on public policy in the arts, entertainment, and media industries. The AEMI unions’ members include actors, cinematographers, choreographers, dancers, directors, musicians, photographers, recording artists, stage managers, singers, technicians, stagehands, and other crafts. They help power a sector of the economy that regularly generates four percent of the United States’ gross domestic product (GDP), creates a positive trade balance, and employs more than five million people.
The vast majority of AEMI union members are no different than working Americans in any other sector. They are everyday employees who depend on finding work in the businesses of others in order to put food on the table, pay next month’s rent, and support their families.
What distinguishes AEMI union members is that most work gig-based employment. A union creative professional is likely to have many employers in a year, and may even have multiple employers in the same week, due to the short duration of a single production or performance. In each of these short-term, W-2 jobs, AEMI union members will receive pay and high quality portable benefits at each union-covered job they work.
AEMI union members are proud that they have helped build a sector through collective bargaining that demonstrates people can work in flexible W-2 jobs for multiple employers that provide family-supporting pay and high-quality portable benefits like health care, defined benefit pensions, and training funds that are consistent from job to job.
AEMI union members are deeply concerned about efforts to misclassify employees as independent contractors. While protected by strong union contracts, union creative professionals still rely on proper employee classification for their rights under employment, civil rights, and workers’ compensation laws.
Short-term “gig” work is not a new phenomenon. AEMI union members have been working gig jobs for over a century. Creative professionals know as well as anyone that employers can provide portable benefits and properly classify W-2 employees in industries where short-term work is an inherent industry feature. They also know that their industries are better off because workers have a voice through collective bargaining.
Instead of finding ways to limit the rights of working Americans, the below signed unions urge this Committee to pursue legislation like the PRO Act that would empower more professionals to negotiate portable benefit plans and other innovations with their employers that lead to long-lasting, successful industries.
If you have any questions, please contact DPE’s Assistant to the President/Legislative Director, Michael Wasser, at mwasser@dpeaflcio.org.
Sincerely,
Actors’ Equity Association (Equity)
American Federation of Musicians (AFM)
American Guild of Musical Artists (AGMA)
American Guild of Variety Artists (AGVA)
Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO (DPE)
Directors Guild of America (DGA)
Guild of Italian American Actors (GIAA)
International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE)
Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU)
Screen Actors Guild - American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA)
Stage Directors and Choreographers Society (SDC)
AEMI Statement to House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee regarding FY 26 NEA and NEH Funding
April 4, 2025
Dear Chairman Simpson and Ranking Member Pingree,
On behalf of the Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO (DPE), I urge the Subcommittee to fund the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) at no less than $209 million each in Fiscal Year (FY) 2026.
Many members of DPE’s affiliate unions in the arts, entertainment, and media industries earn their living working on NEA and NEH-supported productions, programs, and performances. Still more union creative professionals who are employed now in the commercial parts of these industries started their careers working in the nonprofit arts and public media.
Providing no less than $209 million each for the NEA and NEH will ensure that the agencies can continue to support good-paying, family-supporting jobs for middle-class Americans across every state and congressional district. The two agencies are economic drivers that help put people to work creating artistic and educational content, and often in places far from large cultural centers. NEA and NEH-funded programs help veterans heal from the invisible scars of war, inspire the next generation of creators and innovators, and unite people across small towns and big cities. Increasing the NEA and NEH annual funding level to no less than $209 million in FY 2026 is also an important step toward a historical full funding level of $341 million, or $1 per capita.
NEA and NEH funding is also good for local economies. Research shows that audiences spend an estimated $38.46 per person, per event, beyond the cost of admission, on an assortment of goods and services within the communities where they attend arts and cultural programs.
In addition, for many creative professionals, NEA and NEH-funded programs have served as an entry point to careers in commercial arts and entertainment, particularly people who grew up in rural areas. NEA and NEH-funded programs provided these individuals opportunities to develop valuable skills, gain on-the-job experience, and build professional connections.
Put simply, the NEA and NEH continue to be critical agencies for America’s workers and its local economies. Both endowments deliver a high return on investment and cannot be replaced by the private sector. I urge the Subcommittee to fund the NEA and NEH at no less than $209 million each.
If you have any questions, please contact me or DPE Assistant to the President/Legislative Director, Michael Wasser, at mwasser@dpeaflcio.org.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Dorning, President