SAG-AFTRA looks to unionize intimacy coordinators

Actors’ union SAG-AFTRA is making a bid to represent intimacy coordinators employed by companies in the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.
The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists said Wednesday that it has filed an election petition with the National Labor Relations Board to represent the Hollywood workers whose job is to help actors safely navigate nude or simulated-sex scenes on set.
The move comes four years after SAG-AFTRA set rules for the use of intimacy coordinators on film sets in the wake of the #MeToo movement. The rules, which define the role of intimacy coordinators in all stages of production and provide training standards, were an effort to help eliminate sexual harassment in the entertainment industry.
“Working in scenes involving nudity or physical intimacy is some of the most vulnerable work an actor can do. Intimacy coordinators not only provide assistance in navigating these scenes but they also create a safety net for performers ensuring consent and protection throughout the entire process,” SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher said in a statement. “Shifting the power imbalance that has been ingrained over a century is challenging but important work. Work that can be done even more effectively with the backing of a union.”
Intimacy coordination is an expanding profession, and part of this process is intended to help create sustainability in this field so the numbers can grow, said a spokesperson for SAG-AFTRA. The union has asked the AMPTP for voluntary recognition and has not gotten it yet, though that can change, the spokesperson said.
The intimacy coordinator organizing committee said in a statement that being part of the union would “ensure the sustainability of our profession.”
“Right now, intimacy coordinators work without any protections and without standardized wages or benefits,” the organizing committee said. “We do this work because we love it, but a strong career path needs more than that to sustain it.”
The AMPTP did not immediately respond to a request for comment.