NABET Local 15 received its organizing charter in 1965, and the charter was reissued in 1968. In a union predominantly organized around the television industry, Local 15 was one of only three NABET locals devoted to film craftsmen. NABET Local 15 had its origins in the 1940s when the Association of Documentary Film Cameramen (ADFC) organized an independent union. In the late-1940s, the National Association of Broadcast Engineers (NABE), a Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) member union, approached the ADFC and issued them a charter. At that time the name was changed to the Association of Documentary and Television Film Craftsmen (ADTFC) to accommodate the expanding craft categories covered under the NABE union umbrella. The ADTFC organized film crews working on low budget and television films. These were areas not organized by the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees and Moving Picture Operators (IATSE), which was affiliated with the American Federation of Labor (AFL). In 1954, most of the 700 members of ADFTC joined the various IATSE locals. Those members who remained with the ADFTC formed a new union affiliated with the CIO's National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians (NABET). When the AFL and the CIO merged in 1955, IATSE and NABET remained separate entities.

With the increasing number of television commercials, series and feature productions in the early 1960s, workers previously unorganized by IATSE, were now organized by NABET, Local 15, known as the Association of Film Craftsmen. This new local, formed on September 19, 1965, would organize all the craft positions under one contract. The Local felt that this would be a more effective negotiating strategy for workers on low-budget productions. This policy encouraged Local 15's members to work in more than one craft in any area of production.

By the early 1970s, Local 15 expanded as its members increasingly worked on more feature films. Regional offices opened throughout the country, from Boston to Miami to San Francisco. In the late 1980s, NABET, Local 15 set up a meeting with officials of IATSE to discuss a possible merger. Soon after, the NABET international accused Local 15 of trying to secede. The international brought charges against Local 15, which subsequently went to court in an attempt to retain its member status as a NABET local. It lost the case, and the international revoked its charter in 1990. Local 15's membership voted to join IATSE, and was admitted to various locals of that union in October 1990.