Production assistants on NBC’s Chicago Fire have unanimously voted to unionize, marking a milestone for labor organizing in Chicago-based television production.
The series is the first show shot in Chicago to win a National Labor Relations Board election for production assistants and the first NBC production to reach this outcome. Of the 23 eligible voters, 18 cast ballots in favor of unionizing, with an additional 10 votes challenged. The NLRB must now certify the results before negotiations begin on a collective bargaining agreement between NBC and the union.
The vote represents the latest organizing victory for Production Assistants United, a grassroots movement backed by LiUNA Local 724. Since the summer, the group has successfully organized several productions, including The Pitt and Abbott Elementary, both of which also voted unanimously to unionize earlier this month. On December 4, Production Assistants United additionally won NLRB elections for All American and Georgie & Mandy’s First Marriage.
“Today’s vote represents the first step in a larger fight for us,” said Tim Hendrickson, a production assistant on Chicago Fire, in a statement.
Katya Saldaña, also a production assistant on the series, emphasized the collective motivation behind the effort. “We care about our show, our jobs and each other. Our goal is to make sure we are taken care of as much as everyone else because we work just as hard as they do. This victory is one step forward, a victory, to see the change we want in the industry for all PAs in all productions,” she said to THR, who first reported the vote.
Production Assistants United began taking shape in 2023 and secured its first major breakthrough in September when The Pitt became the first major television production to unionize its production assistants. That show has since finalized a labor contract.
“With every new victory in this movement we’re turning what was once an impossibility into an inevitability,” said Ethan Ravens, co founder of Production Assistants United.
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