Union Setup and Configuration
Choosing your production type and the unions and contracts you run under
Production & unions is the second stage on the Company Setup checklist. It covers two decisions: your production type (Broadway / Off-Broadway / Development), and — separately — which unions you run under and the contract for each. The production type comes first, because it decides which unions and contracts the stage offers you.
This is a list of contracts, not a checkbox list
You add as many unions as your production runs, each with its own contract card asking for the agreement, sometimes a tier, level, or production kind, and sometimes an employer ID number. The same union can appear twice under two different agreements.
An Admin manages production type and company union contracts, during setup and later in Settings. Admin and Payroll teammates can assign payees to those contracts and record union obligations; Approvers read the information.
Accessing this stage
Open Company setup in the left nav, then choose Production & unions in the setup wizard's stepper. After Greenroom approves your company, the same stage is Settings → Unions.
Production type
Pick Broadway, Off-Broadway, or Development. This sets your platform-fee tier and rate baseline (see Platform Fees & Billing), and it decides which unions and contracts this stage offers (see Which unions your production type offers). It's self-service and saves the moment you pick a card. You can change your mind freely while setting up; it locks once Greenroom approves your company. After that the stage shows "Production type is locked after approval. Ask Greenroom to change it. You can add unions below." and changing it means contacting Greenroom.
Union selection
Under the production type, answer Does this production run under union contracts?: "Yes — we run under one or more union contracts" or "No — this production runs non-union". Answering yes asks you to add at least one union ("Add at least one union below to finish this answer."). Then add every union your production runs under, one at a time, from the Add a union… control. A production with four unions adds four; adding one is never gated on what any other contract holds. The control and each union's card name a union the way a payee's Engagement & union dropdown does: its short name (Local 798, USA 829) and then its full name. Where the full name starts with the short name, that part isn't repeated, so IATSE reads IATSE — Pink. The stage is complete once you've set a production type and either added at least one union or answered non-union. Saving is per stage: the Save contracts button posts whatever is on screen ("Contracts saved"), while the wizard's Save and continue saves your contract list only if something on it actually changed.
You can add more unions at any time, including after Greenroom approves you.
Each union you add gets its own contract card, asking for:
- Contract — the specific agreement you run it under (e.g. AEA's Production agreement), chosen from the agreements Greenroom has configured for your production type.
- Tier, Level, or Production kind — required only where the contract has one: AEA's Broadway League Development agreement asks for a tier, its Off-Broadway League Development agreement for a level, and any other contract whose minimums come in kinds asks for a production kind, offering that contract's own options. For example, AEA Off-Broadway lists its categories (Cat 1–5 and Cat A through Cat EE), ATPAM Off-Broadway Cat A–D, and USA 829 AWC Musicals / AWC Plays. The form blocks saving until it's picked, with "Choose an available contract and any required tier, level or production kind for each union." Some contracts' premiums are split between musicals and plays (Local 802's Broadway contract is one), so the contract can be marked a musical or a play. A contract marked neither isn't refused, but its payees aren't offered the premiums that apply only to a musical or only to a play, and the card says so, for example "Mark this contract a musical or a play. Until then its payees are not offered the premiums that apply only to a musical or only to a play." Once the contract has payees, the prompt points you to Change contract instead; once it has payroll history, it can't be changed here.
- Employer ID number — required only for unions whose remittance report prints one (AEA today); it's config-driven rather than hardcoded, so another union could pick this up later without a code change. This is one number per contract, not per union.
Each card also carries a short checklist of what that contract still needs. Things you do sit under a line like "Show 2 open items · Employer ID number needed": an employer ID still to enter; fee, advance, and royalty setup for the payees whose titles are paid that way; or initial union benefits to confirm in Union Obligations. Things Greenroom confirms sit under "Show N items under Greenroom review": agreement-specific reviews (for example, SDC contract filing, or ATPAM manager and press agent start dates) and any fund whose remittance address is missing or not yet verified. These are reminders, not gates; none of them blocks saving or submitting.
One of those reviews is worth knowing about ahead of time. An SDC Off-Broadway contract lists Initial pension & health review, because Greenroom doesn't calculate SDC's one-time pension and health contribution on a director's or choreographer's fee and advance: its weekly rules don't cover it. Ask Greenroom to confirm the amount, when it's due, and whether it was already paid elsewhere.
Which unions your production type offers
The Add a union… control offers the unions and agreements Greenroom has configured for your production type:
| Production type | Unions offered (and the agreement each runs under) |
|---|---|
| Broadway | AEA (Production), ATPAM (Broadway), IATSE (Broadway), Local 764 (Broadway), Local 798 (Broadway), Local 802 (Broadway), SDC (Broadway), USA 829 (Broadway) |
| Off-Broadway | AEA, ATPAM, SDC, and USA 829, each under its Off-Broadway agreement |
| Development | AEA (Broadway League Development, with a tier; Off-Broadway League Development, with a level), ATPAM (Development), SDC (Broadway League Developmental; Off-Broadway Developmental), USA 829 (Project Only Agreement) |
Until you pick a production type, the control reads "Choose a production type first". To add a contract outside your type's list, tick Show contracts outside this production type; those options are labelled "(outside scope)". Saving one asks you to confirm in a Save contracts outside this production type? dialog (Save outside scope). The contract then carries an outside-scope marker in Union Studio and on payees, and its onboarding requirements still apply.
Contracts you've already configured stay available if you change production type. The stage flags any union that's now outside it ("… is outside this production type. Your configured contracts remain available."), and nothing is removed for you.
The same union under two agreements
A production can run one union under more than one agreement; a development production can carry both of SDC's developmental agreements, for example. A union you already run keeps appearing in the picker, labelled "(another agreement)" so it's clear that picking it adds a second contract, not a duplicate of the first.
A union stops being offered only once every agreement available to you for it is already taken. When nothing is left to add, the control reads "All available contracts are listed". That's a real end state, not a lock.
Adding the same (union, agreement) pair twice is refused by name before the save ("… is listed twice under the same agreement. Pick a different agreement, or remove one of the two."), because the underlying record is keyed on that pair: two cards would silently become one, and the employer number typed on the losing card would vanish without a message.
Changing or removing a contract
A contract with no payees and no payroll history can be changed or removed freely: pick a different contract, or use Remove, and save.
A contract with payees assigned to it can't be removed until they're reassigned (the card says how many, and Show assigned payees lists them), and its contract can't be switched in the dropdown. Use Change contract instead: choose the new contract and a change date, then Preview change to see each payee's scale before and after (and pick a new job title for anyone whose title doesn't exist under the new contract). The preview names the open draft payrolls it will recalculate under the new contract, by run number, and says that every open payroll for this company goes back to draft and needs approving again. Confirm change moves every payee under the contract to it, keeps premiums at their current amounts and dates, and recalculates those drafts. It's refused if an open payroll (Draft or In review) uses the contract only until a date before the change date. The refusal names the payroll and says to move the change date back to that date or earlier, or, when each one is a draft, to delete it from its payroll page. Before Greenroom approves your company, you can do this yourself; after approval it's a request to Greenroom. Greenroom refuses it outright if a payroll was already approved under the contract; that's corrected through an amendment instead.
A contract that payroll runs have used (drafts included) can't be removed while they hold it, and its agreement and level can't be changed either: both dropdowns lock beside the reason, though the employer ID number stays editable. Remove is locked, and the card names the runs, for example "Used by payroll run GR-2026-0003 (Draft). Keep this contract, or delete the draft run GR-2026-0003 from its payroll page if it isn't needed." A run that's past draft can never be deleted, so for those the answer is simply "Keep this contract." The non-union answer is locked for the same reasons while any contract has payees or payroll history.
Available unions
Greenroom currently supports eight unions:
| Union | Full name | Coverage |
|---|---|---|
| AEA | Actors' Equity Association | Stage actors and stage managers |
| ATPAM | Association of Theatrical Press Agents and Managers | Company managers and press agents |
| IATSE | International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (the Pink Contract; the union is named IATSE Pink in Greenroom, and setup and the payee dropdown read IATSE — Pink) | Stagecraft and technical crew |
| Local 764 | IATSE Local 764 (Theatrical Wardrobe Union) | Wardrobe — dressers, wardrobe supervisors, and Child Actor Guardians |
| Local 798 | IATSE Local 798 | Hair and makeup |
| Local 802 | American Federation of Musicians, Local 802 | Musicians |
| SDC | Stage Directors & Choreographers Society | Directors and choreographers |
| USA 829 | United Scenic Artists, Local 829 | Scenic, costume, lighting, sound, and projection design |
Local 802 has three year-chained rate sets: Year 1 from 2025-09-01, Year 2 from 2026-08-31, and Year 3 from 2027-08-30. Year 2 was checked line by line against the Broadway League's "Local 802 Musicians — Rates effective Monday, August 31, 2026" memo, and 33 of 33 dollar figures matched to the cent. Union Studio shows it as Checked against the agreement, and a payroll in that rate year carries no note about its rates. The Year 1 and Year 3 sets show Not yet checked until a document covers them. A payroll whose period falls in either shows a note on Payroll Summary that the Local 802 rates have not yet been checked against the agreement, and at Submit you confirm you reviewed those amounts before sending, approving, or submitting the payroll. See Union Rate Reference and Union Studio Versions and Publishing.
A performer who is both AEA cast and a Local 802 musician is not given two unions. They get one AEA engagement with an Actor/Musician job title and a Local 802 wage attached to it — see Actor/Musicians.
Union selection never changes a payee's W-2/1099 status
SDC does not auto-convert payees to contractors
Payee type — Employee, Loan-out, Contractor, or Vendor, chosen once when the payee is added and not editable afterward — is what determines whether our tax partner creates them as an employee (W-2) or a contractor (1099). Union assignment never overrides it: the decision reads the payee's type alone, with no union lookup anywhere in it. Assigning someone to SDC does not turn an employee-typed payee into a contractor.
Where union does matter: for a payee who is already Contractor, Loan-out, or Vendor typed, SDC and USA 829 assignment determines which 1099 box their pay reports on — 1099-NEC for their fee, or 1099-MISC for advances and royalties — instead of everything landing on one form the way other contractor payments do. suggestBucket1099 checks type first (an employee-typed payee returns "none" — W-2 — before the union is ever consulted) and only reaches the SDC/USA 829 branch for non-employee payees.
For where each rate comes from, and the corrections made to them, see Union Rate Reference. To look up the actual current minimums, fringes, and dues for your contracts, read the Union rates pages, or open Union Studio in the left nav: as a company manager you see the contracts your production has configured here, with their current rules. Only Greenroom staff can publish new rule versions.
Per-payee union assignment
The contracts you declare here are the source of truth for the agreement — a payee doesn't pick their own agreement from scratch, and a payee can only be put under a union your production has added here ("Need another union? Onboard it first in company setup.", or "Need another union? Onboard it first in Settings → Unions." once your company is approved). On a payee's own Engagement & union section, picking a union you've declared either shows the agreement as a read-only line ("Set at the company level") when you've declared exactly one contract for that union, or asks them to disambiguate with a dropdown when you've declared two or more for the same union. Job title, department (where applicable), and effective date are still set per payee. See Payee Union Configuration for that full per-payee workflow.
Where each fund's money goes
Every union fund has a destination on file with Greenroom. It's the physical routing for that fund: the legal payee name a cheque is made out to, the mailing address, which agreement it applies to, and how the fund settles. Greenroom staff keep these on the Destinations tab of Union Studio; a company manager's Union Studio shows your contracts' rules and has no Destinations tab.
Destinations are versioned exactly like rates: each row has an effective window, current rows are kept alongside historical ones, and every change is audited. Each row also carries a verification status, so Greenroom can tell an address it has confirmed from one that was simply given to us: Verified (a source on the fund's side gives the address), Client's sheet only (our client's sheet gives it, and nothing else confirms it yet) or Unverified (nothing confirms it yet).
The effective window is what makes an office move safe. Local 802 moved its benefit-fund mail to PO Box 4706, New York, NY 10185-4706 at the start of September 2026: the four cheques (dues, the AFM-EPF supplemental pension, health, and sick pay) still go in one envelope to one address, but a run for a work week ending on or before 2026-09-01 keeps printing the 322 W 48th St address its documents already carried, and a week ending 2026-09-06 or later prints the PO Box. Nothing was edited in place — the old rows were closed and new ones opened, so a reprint of an older week can't claim an address that wasn't yet in use.
Only Greenroom staff can supersede a current row or add a new one. What you'll see of it: a contract card on this stage lists "… remittance destination" under the items Greenroom is reviewing whenever a fund's address is missing or not yet verified. And wherever a fund is paid by check, its destination is shown where you need it: on the fund's tile in a run's Union Reports step, as Pay to [payee] · [address] on the printed union report, and in the Pay to column of Union Obligations.
An unverified or missing destination is what produces the "No remittance address on file" warning on Union Obligations and on remittance reports. A cheque with nowhere to go is a blocker worth clearing early.
What's required for payroll
Production & unions is a required stage: you can't submit your setup for review until it's complete (a production type chosen, and either at least one union with its contract or non-union confirmed), alongside Business info, Bank & checks, State tax registrations, and Payroll signer and history.
Common issues
I can't find AEA-specific fields like Production ID or Business Representative
They aren't part of this stage. AEA is the one union that does carry a company-level Employer ID number field here (it prints on AEA's remittance report) — everything else agreement-specific is set per payee (see Payee Union Configuration).
A union I need isn't listed
First check your production type: Off-Broadway and Development productions are offered four unions by default, and Show contracts outside this production type reveals the rest. If it still isn't there, it isn't one of the eight unions Greenroom supports. Contact your Greenroom account contact; it isn't something you can add yourself.
I can't select a second union
You can. Use Add a union… below the existing contract cards; adding one is never blocked by what another contract holds, including one that already has payees assigned to it.
If a specific union isn't offered any more, it's because every agreement available to you for it is already on your production. If the control reads "All available contracts are listed", you already run everything your production type offers (tick Show contracts outside this production type for the rest).
Switching away from a union or contract that has payees assigned to it
A contract still holding assigned payees can't be removed: the card says how many payees, and the save is refused until they're reassigned on their own profiles. To move them all to a different agreement of the same union, use Change contract (before approval; after it, ask Greenroom). Note that this blocks only the contract being changed: it never stops you adding a different union alongside it.
Remove is greyed out on a contract with no payees
Payroll runs have used it. The card names them; a contract that payroll has used stays on your production. If every run that used it is a draft, delete those drafts from their payroll pages (Delete draft in each run's header; see Payroll Run Status), and the contract can then be removed.
Next steps
Continue with Bank Setup to add your funding account, then Tax Configuration for how tax filing works. For payee-level union configuration, see Payee Union Configuration.
Union Rate Reference
The union agreement rates Greenroom applies, and the document each one comes from
Union Studio Versions and Publishing
How a union's rate rules are versioned, drafted, validated and published — what everyone can read, what only Greenroom staff can change, and which version a pay period uses