So, the union has an agreement with the company’s management that only those on their predetermined qualification list can be selected for a job. Would that list, or at least the administrative arm for that list, be considered a labor union for right-to-work purposes? Well, it would have been an interesting question for the Eleventh Circuit in Towns v. Directors Guild of America if the employee-plaintiff had made the right arguments and preserved the issue for appeal. As it turned out, however, the employee first raised those contentions on appeal, making the Eleventh Circuit’s job easy. But the case is still one of interest when examining Georgia’s right-to-work statute.
Marvin Towns had worked for decades in the television industry. In 2019, And Action, LLC, hired him as a production manager for the television series The Haves & Have Nots, which is filmed in Georgia. The Directors Guild of America, Inc. (DGA) is the labor union that serves as the collective bargaining agent for production managers; Towns was a DGA member.
The DGA negotiated a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with film and television employers that set out that individuals could only be hired from established “qualification lists.” To be put on the qualification list the individual must apply to the DGA Contract Administration (DGACA), which compiles the lists. The applicant must establish their qualifications via documented evidence.
After Towns had begun working for And...
Alec Stapp said people often overlook that the case against Elizabeth Holmes included straightforward financial fraud, specifically lying about revenue. Stapp made this observation in reference to...