Models wage uphill fight to unionize

'You're so much more respected'

From Correspondent Janine Sharell

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Donna Eller hardly looks like a union organizer.

But, sure enough, the 5-foot-9-inch blonde is a full-time model and president of the Models Guild, a union formed two years ago, mostly to offer health insurance and legal and financial services to its members.

"It's one thing to have a dream of being a model," Eller says. "The other thing is to be realistic about it."

Models generally work as independent contractors, and Eller says they need legal and financial protection.

CNN's Jeanine Sharrel reports.

But not everyone in the business agrees with her approach. They argue that models can and should rely on their agents for help.

"Mostly, they depend on the agency to help guide them and take them from being a pretty person to a professional model," says Joey Grill , vice president of Click Model Management.

A good modeling agency does everything from paying for head shots to providing investment advice, he says. Most top agencies are part of the International Model Managers Association, a New York organization formed nearly 20 years ago, in part to regulate working conditions.

"I believe agency managers are protectors," Joseph Hunter, president of IMMA, says. "We find these models, and we develop them."

Most IMMA members are not receptive to the idea of a union for models. "The nature of the modeling business is not one that lends itself to union practices," Grill says.

And, managers argue, many models are already covered for health insurance by the Screen Actors Guild, or SAG.

But although model Maria DiAngelis gets her health care through SAG, she also joined the Models Guild in hopes of getting something more elusive: respect.

"I find doing TV and film, you're so much more respected, and I think it's a lot because of the union," DiAngelis says.

Still, with only 160 members so far, models in the fledgling guild aren't finding safety in numbers -- at least not yet.

Related sites:

• The Models Guild
• Screen Actors Guild

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