Behind the Scenes, Hollander ’85 Protects Hollywood Jobs

When Russell Hollander ’85 sits down to negotiate a Directors Guild of America contract with producers, he carries the future of nearly 20,000 people on his shoulders.

As the union’s national executive director, Hollander is responsible for safeguarding jobs threatened by AI and other disruptors, preserving economic and creative rights, and fighting for health and pension benefits.

Hollander hasn’t let them down yet, says director and producer Jon Avnet.

“Russ is a bulldog. He’s incredibly tenacious … indefatigable … like he’s born to do it.”

“His leadership and acumen are off the charts. He’s really exceptional at contract preparations, strategizing, team building and communicating,” said Avnet, who has worked closely with Hollander as chair of the guild’s negotiating committee for the 2020, 2023 and 2026 contract talks with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

The complex issues they face on behalf of directors, and their teams working in film, television, commercials, news, sports and documentary, are formidable.

A sharp downturn in the industry has forced many members out of work. Healthcare costs are soaring. The share of production taking place offshore is growing; the union has less jurisdiction there. The list goes on.

But in the contract ratified this past June, producers agreed to their largest contribution ever to healthcare costs. They also accepted new guardrails on how studios can use generative AI to protect jobs and creative control, agreed to support a federal film and television production tax credit to stem offshoring, and made other concessions.

A firm grasp of the financials in the industry’s rapidly changing business model, an ability to pivot and adapt rather than resist new technology and a great sense of humor helped Hollander deliver a strong four-year package to union members, said Avnet, known for his work with actors such as Robert De Niro, Cicely Tyson, Robert Redford, Kathy Bates, Natalie Portman, Kevin Costner, Michelle Pfeiffer, Farrah Fawcett, Tom Cruise, James Earl Jones and Al Pacino on such films as “Risky Business,” “Fried Green Tomatoes” and “Black Swan.”

Hollander’s path to Hollywood leadership, where his strategies often set the pattern for other industry unions, started in a union household in Huntington, on Long Island. 

His father taught math and history in Queens and was active in the United Federation of Teachers, proudly joining the picket lines led by Al Shanker. His mother was a secretary at the local high school.

“We knew that the house, the salary and the healthcare were provided to us because of the union,” Hollander said.

After initially thinking he wanted to major in biology at Cornell, Hollander chose the ILR School. 

“I wanted to be involved in changing the world,” he said. “It very quickly became clear to me that I wanted to work with unions.”

Few unions were recruiting at Cornell, so Hollander turned to Jim McPherson, who served as ILR assistant dean and director of student services at the time.

“If you’re coming out of school, there are two ways to work for unions,” Hollander recalls McPherson telling him. “Go on the factory floor and work your way up. Or go to law school or get a Ph.D. in economics. And go talk to this guy, Al Davidoff.”

“I chose law school, and I gave Al a call,” Hollander said.

They met for lunch at Oliver’s deli at the corner of College and Oak avenues south of campus in Collegetown, and the trajectory of Hollander’s future accelerated.

“Everything in my life can be traced to the summer of 1984. Al taught me what it means to be a union leader.”

Davidoff ’80, elected president in 1981 of the Ithaca local he helped form, mentored Hollander, who spent his senior year interning for United Auto Workers Local 2300 in its downtown Ithaca office by the infamous “Octopus” intersection.

Professor David Lipsky supervised the internship. In class, he taught the building blocks of labor. “David Lipsky taught me how to approach bargaining and negotiating contracts.”

Professor Ronald Ehrenberg also made a lasting impression.

“He taught me a special way of thinking. He was brilliant, a fantastic teacher,” said Hollander, remembering that the labor economist, suffering from an injury, taught an entire class “lying flat on his back on a desk.”

Hollander recalled raucous mock contract negotiations in a collective bargaining class that erupted when a classmate overturned a table. Books scattered and shouting broke out as his union-side team fought hard for a win rather than an impasse, which carried the dreaded penalty of having to write a term paper.

Hollander’s team researched its way to victory but received a poor grade because its demands bankrupted the management side.

“We were so far out, we thought they would come back, and we’ll negotiate,” he said. 

“Seeing how a win can ultimately lead to loss was an extraordinarily valuable lesson.”

After graduating from Harvard Law School and working at the labor law firm Cohen, Weiss and Simon LLP in New York City, Hollander took a job at the Directors Guild of America’s New York office in 2001.

He moved to Los Angeles in 2015 and continued rising through the ranks, becoming the national executive director in 2017. In April, his contract was extended for him to serve in the position through 2029.

For years, Hollander has offered internships and shadowing experiences to ILR students as a way to give back for what he calls “an incredible education.”

“I don’t think I would be doing what I do now if I didn’t go to the ILR School.”