Production assistants on NBC's “Chicago Fire” and “Chicago Med” say the very act of unionizing to protect their pay has instead cost them thousands of dollars a month. After ratifying their first union contract, workers report being shifted from the industry-standard 12-hour or 14-hour days to eight-hour shifts with no overtime, a change the union says has slashed some workers' typical weekly take-home pay by 43 percent.
The production assistants on both NBC series voted to join Production Assistants United and LIUNA Local 724 late last year and this past winter, becoming the first and second shows in Dick Wolf's One Chicago franchise to unionize, according to the Chicago Tribune. Production assistants have long been among the few film and television set roles that remained non-union, typically entry-level workers tasked with running errands, cleaning up messes, and managing the public when filming blocks off foot or car traffic. They earn $19.93 an hour, according to the Tribune's reporting, compared with Chicago's $17.05 minimum wage.
From 12-Hour Guarantees to Eight-Hour Shifts
For years, the paper reports, a 12-hour or 14-hour workday was standard for Hollywood production assistants, with overtime kicking in after eight hours — meaning PAs working 12-hour days were paid time-and-a-half for the last four. That long-day guarantee effectively functioned as the income floor for a job classification that offers few chances to move up the ladder, especially as television and film industry contractions have narrowed those paths. Some PAs on “Chicago Fire” have worked the show for eight years, per the Tribune.
When “Chicago Fire” and “Chicago Med” returned to work in July, production assistants initially came back as non-union employees while their new contract was still being finalized. The Tribune reports that union deal memos removed the prior daily guarantees, and PAs on both shows say their hours were subsequently cut — some are now receiving eight-hour days, while others are still getting 12-hour days, even though the typical workweek for the job has run around 60 hours. LIUNA Local 724 says it never agreed to reduce the 12-hour and 14-hour guarantees down to eight hours.
Union Says the Timing Is No Coincidence
Alex Aguilar, a union representative with LIUNA, said production assistants should not lose the income they have historically relied on simply because they unionized. LIUNA has claimed the hour reductions came in direct response to the unionization drive, and Aguilar said the union believes NBCUniversal is violating labor law. Under federal precedent, an employer generally may not materially change hours and compensation without first bargaining with the union, since hours and pay are considered mandatory subjects of bargaining, Aguilar said.
That legal backdrop got sharper teeth after a December 2024 National Labor Relations Board ruling in a case called Endurance Environmental Solutions, which set a strict “clear and unmistakable waiver” standard, according to Littler. Under that standard, unilateral changes to mandatory bargaining subjects like work hours are unlawful unless a contract explicitly permits them, reversing a more employer-friendly standard from the Trump era. Aguilar told the Tribune that LIUNA has not yet filed an unfair labor practice charge with the NLRB but will do so if NBCUniversal does not fix the problem, and may also file a contractual grievance if appropriate. It would ultimately be up to the NLRB to determine whether a violation occurred. NBCUniversal declined to comment to the Tribune.
A Union Win Elsewhere, and a Different Story on 'Chicago P.D.'
Not every corner of the One Chicago universe has been touched. Production assistants on “Chicago P.D.,” part of the same franchise, did not decide to unionize and have not seen their hours reduced, the Tribune reports. Meanwhile, the new contract on “Chicago Fire” and “Chicago Med” did secure real gains alongside the hours dispute: PAs negotiated a more favorable healthcare benefit and addressed meal-break compensation, an area where non-union production assistants are not guaranteed breaks at all. Multiple production assistants told Aguilar that they would have to find other jobs if the hour cuts continued.
The wave of PA organizing under LIUNA has moved fast. Production assistants on HBO Max's “The Pitt” ratified the first union contract for PAs on a major television series in December, securing Motion Picture Industry Health and Pension benefits and employer-paid training, according to the AFL-CIO. LIUNA has also organized workers on ABC's “Abbott Elementary,” and in January, production assistants on Netflix's “The Four Seasons” in New York voted 19-1 to unionize, marking the first PA union win in that state. An estimated 22,000 entertainment workers in non-traditional or early-career roles unionized nationwide between May 2023 and May 2025 following the Hollywood writers' strike, according to Payday Report.
Picket Line Outside Engine 18's Firehouse
The dispute spilled into public view earlier this week when union workers staged an informational picket featuring an inflatable “Scabby the Rat” outside the real Chicago fire station on Blue Island Avenue that serves as the exterior for Engine 18 on the show, according to posts shared on Reddit. Interior scenes for both “Chicago Fire” and “Chicago Med” are filmed at Cinespace Film Studios, a 1.5-million-square-foot complex on Chicago's West Side that has anchored Illinois film production since 2010.
Both shows remain executive produced by Dick Wolf, whose deal with Universal Television was extended through 2027 and reportedly entitles him to half of his shows' profits, commanding as much as $200,000 per episode, according to a 2020 Forbes profile cited by the Tribune. “Chicago Fire” is now in its 15th season and “Chicago Med” its 12th. Formal NLRB certifications for the two shows' bargaining units specifically exclude showrunners' assistants, writers' assistants, directors' assistants, and payroll clerks from the PA unit LIUNA now represents, leaving those roles outside the current dispute.
