AFTRA Announces Tentative Agreement On Network TV Code; Claims "Major Milestone" And "Substantial Gains"

LOS ANGELES (March 9, 2008) - The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), the national labor union of 70,000 actors, singers, dancers, announcers, and other broadcast talent, has reached a tentative agreement with the four major television networks and producers on the Network Code, which is subject to AFTRA National Board approval and ratification from members.“This agreement is a major milestone for AFTRA as substantial gains in wages and working conditions for performers were successfully achieved,” said Roberta Reardon, AFTRA President and Chair of the Negotiating Committee. “This contract is extraordinary for performers and made significant progress on many fronts, including importantly, new media jurisdiction and compensation.”

[The AMPTP issued a statement 40 minutes after AFTRA's: "The AMPTP applauds the latest labor agreement between AFTRA and the television networks. This agreement shows what can be accomplished when both sides approach the negotiating table in a timely, serious and focused way.]

The new agreement contains solid increases in wage rates for all categories, increased contributions for the AFTRA Health and Retirement plan, and addresses discrete issues affecting every category of performer. In addition, the agreement preserves significant principles which are a hallmark of AFTRA contracts – such as universal coverage of background performers and contract security for daytime serial contract players.< Highlights of the new agreement include:

-- Increases program fees each year of contract.
-- Increases “extra rehearsal” and overtime rates by 25%.
-- Beginning November 2008, establishes 1-day, 3-day and weekly rates (as provided in AFTRA’s primetime contract) for principal performers in non-prime time and syndicated dramatic programs (other than serials).
-- Retains universal coverage for background actors in all formats, including dramatic programs and daytime serials.
-- Raises minimum call provisions for Singers and Stand-Ins.
-- Establishes new residuals structures for paid Internet downloads (electronic sell-through) that increases the rate currently paid by employers, and establishes residual rates for ad-supported streaming and use of clips on the Internet. 
-- Establishes union coverage and terms for entertainment programming and promotional announcements made directly for new media.
-- Reduces the “reconciliation period” from 26 weeks to 2 weeks for freelance daytime performers in recurring roles.
-- Raises exclusivity thresholds for performers under contract.
-- Establishes a day rate for Dancers on Awards programs.
-- Guarantees Health and Retirement coverage for Stunt Coordinators on serial dramas.
-- Establishes new limitations on crediting overscale against overtime.
-- Increases employer contribution rates to the AFTRA Health and Retirement plans.

Terms for original dramatic programs made directly for new media will be negotiated during AFTRA’s “Exhibit A” negotiations for primetime dramatic programming.

“Our fundamental goal in these negotiations was to protect performers’ interests and improve their wages and working conditions in the face of challenging times,” said AFTRA Network Code Negotiating Committee Co-Chair and Los Angeles Local President Ron Morgan. “Our priorities were to modernize certain aspects of our contract and establish a framework for union members to participate in new media as these businesses evolve.”

The AFTRA Network TV Code covers actors and all on-camera and off-camera talent on all forms of television programming: syndicated dramas, daytime serials, game shows, talk shows, variety and musical programs, news, sports, reality shows, and promotional announcements. Programs covered by the Code include diverse programs such as Good Morning America, 20/20, American Idol, The View, The Tonight Show, Late Show with David Letterman, Oprah, The Price is Right, Deal or No Deal, Days of Our Lives, The Bold and the Beautiful, All My Children, Cake, Saturday Night Live, Entertainment Tonight, and Survivor.

Formal negotiations between members of AFTRA’s 35-person Negotiating Committee and the networks and producers began February 19 in Los Angeles, and were concluded on the evening of Saturday, March 8 in New York.

Representatives of the following organizations attended one or more of the sessions: American Federation of Musicians, Actors’ Equity Association, Writers Guild of America, East, Directors Guild of America, Screen Actors Guild, and AFTRA’s strategic partner, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. Members of other important sectors of the industry: promo announcers, daytime drama contract players, stunt performers and coordinators, and rehearsal actors also attended negotiation sessions. These negotiations were preceded by months of informal discussions, preparation, and research by union staff and consultants.

Terms for AFTRA primetime network TV dramas and situation comedies - such as Rules of Engagement, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and Til Death - are covered by Exhibit A of the Network Code and are negotiated separately. The current Exhibit A terms will be up for renegotiation in June 2008.

Details of the new agreement will be submitted to the AFTRA National Board for approval at the end of the month, and if approved, to membership ratification thereafter.

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12 Comments »

  1. Thanks for agreeing to a vague contract. Now I can go work on some vague shows.

    Comment by Working actor — March 9, 2008 @ 8:55 pm

  2. Hearty congratulations to AFTRA leadership on a job well done.
    After this, any AFTRA-bashing is tired, ugly, old Membership First politics.

    Best wishes from a working SAG & AFTRA member!

    Comment by Working SAG/AFTRA Actor — March 9, 2008 @ 11:44 pm

  3. It’s AFTRA. The less filling beer of no choice. I am an AFTRA member and did EVERYBODY HATES CHRIS last year under an AFTRA/SAG contract which was at a lower base rate for SAG day players. The overtime began after 10 hours instead of SAG’s eight hours work day. You have to feel sorry for AFTRA even releasing this garbage of a contract gain. The unspoken word was AFTRA wants to offer producers cheaper than SAG rates per Justine Bateman’s diatribe.

    Like frickin’ DUH.

    No mention of DVD rates changing I bet cha five dollars. This bullshit just undercut SAG negotiations. God damn the AFI-CLO.

    Comment by Chris Jackson — March 10, 2008 @ 12:29 am

  4. Reardon, Morgan and Hedgpeth showed what happens when a united group of performers negotiate in good faith. I don’t think they even bothered to get a strike authorization - they just went in and took care of business. So much for all the MeFirst Hollywood crap about AFTRA being unable to negotiate a good contract.

    Thank you AFTRA!

    Comment by TObvious — March 10, 2008 @ 4:14 am

  5. Well, how about that.

    Comment by Julius Fort — March 10, 2008 @ 6:05 am

  6. When your contracts pay crap, ANY gain can be called “substantial”. Ask ANY ACTOR if they would rather have their show be an AFTRA show or a SAG show. They’ll all say SAG.

    Show me anyone on this board who says otherwise, and I’ll show you a producer in troll’s clothing.

    Comment by Supportive Actor — March 10, 2008 @ 10:57 am

  7. I am withholding full judgement on the contract until I see the details. Note the phrase “new residuals structures”. There is no way of knowing this is a good deal until we know what those structures are, and how large a free window AFTRA gave the AMPTP. A 17 or 24-day window would render the new residuals structure essentially meaningless, while the migration from TV and cable channels to IPTV portals will, over the next few years, render any Old Media contract gains meaningless.

    Also not mentioned in the list of deal points is product placement, and the repurposing of series content in commercials. This has a demonstrated effect on an actor’s ability move seamlessly between series jobs and commercials. One example. Will Arnett was recently dropped as the voice of KITT because he voices commercials for GM, and Knight Rider is essentially a long-form Ford commercial. If it can happen in prime time, I’m sure it can happen in the soaps.

    The timing of this announcement also raises suspicions, with the SAG/AFTRA joint bargaining with the AMPTP coming up and informal initial get-togethers already underway. The AFTRA/SAG pattern is eerily similar to the DGA/WGA pattern. The DGA was out of the box first with the announcement of a deal but with few concrete details. Upon further inspection, we learned the directors locked themselves out of a huge percentage of work for the Internet, essentially leaving the moguls free to pursue low-cost series pilots as Internet shows, thus avoiding having to pay a real director.

    AFTRA, lamentably, has been in the business of undercutting SAG for awhile now, to the detriment of its members. Both the timing and the substance of this announcement does nothing to alleviate my concerns. I hope to be proven wrong by the details, but I fear I’ll be proven correct.

    The only good news out of this is that it doesn’t cover prime time. Regardless of our opinions about the potential pitfalls of the AFTRA “Network Code” or AFTRA tactics (I am a SAG member who’s also been in some weird “must-join” limbo with AFTRA for years now), for the next few months the smartest course of action for SAG members is to fully support our leadership as they negotiate. The AMPTP needs to see that SAG is unified, and is ready to initiate, and prepared to sustain, an aggressive labor action in its pursuit of a fair deal.

    Comment by mheister — March 10, 2008 @ 12:33 pm

  8. SAG unified? Now that’s a joke.

    MeFirst runs Hollywood by terror, the rest of the union be damned.

    The AMPTP knows full well that SAG under the Scab and the D-Lister are about as unified as Humpty Dumpty after the fall.

    The MeFirsters think they can achieve unity by bashing AFTRA. They don’t get that the only people who’re buying that nonsense are the few thousand of them in Hollywood and a couple of expats in the RBD.

    Show me someone who’d rather work on a SAG basic cable contract show rather than an AFTRA Exhibit A Cable show and I’ll show you an idiot who can’t do basic arithmetic.

    Comment by It's Obvious — March 10, 2008 @ 2:15 pm

  9. The timing is suspicious only if you’re brain dead or think that the WTC attack was really a conspiracy of the Trilateral Commission. The negotiations had been announced and on the calendar for months. They finished, they announced their deal.

    Undercutting? That’s what SAG did to win jurisdiction. Ask anyone why there are caps on BG or why we pay commission to our agents on scale fees. That’s something AFTRA members don’t have to do under the net code…that’s a 10% pay cut courtesy of your friendly local SAG undercutters. That’s how SAG took shows away from AFTRA, and now a few Hollywood has beens are upset that the AFTRA side isn’t taking it any more.

    Well la di dah… don’t you just hate it when the facts bite you on the ass.

    Oh-and if you’re in a must join situation, that means you’ve worked at least one AFTRA job and it’s more than 30 days ago. It means you can’t work a second AFTRA job until you join.

    Comment by Supportive's Conscience — March 10, 2008 @ 2:25 pm

  10. It’s MUCH easier to make a deal whn you’re not fighting for much. Or when you’re willing to undercut someone else’s contract. So BIG “gains” for AFTRA are in fact probably still steps down from what the SAG standard is.

    But, still it took work for them to get this and I do thank them for that. I only wish I could be as happy when I get an AFTRA job as I am when I get a SAG job.

    Peggy Lane O’Rourke

    Comment by Peggy Lane O'Rourke — March 10, 2008 @ 4:06 pm

  11. Fantastic, I’m guessing we’re operating under the AMPTP definition of “substantial.” But who cares, when the goal of undercutting SAG is all that matters.

    Comment by Muronao — March 10, 2008 @ 5:40 pm

  12. A few months ago NBC online predicted they would reap $1 billion in Internet revenue in 2008. I thought perhaps it was an aberration, as NBC has the TV rights to the Beijing Olympic games this summer.

    Along comes Bob Iger, crowing that Disney’s online revenue is going to match NBC’s. It’s reasonable to expect that Warner Brothers can’t be far behind. After all, they just announced that they’re reviving the WB brand as an online portal.

    This is of course great news for the shareholders, but something the actors need to keep in mind as SAG and AFTRA go into negotiations with the AMPTP. While DVD revenues still far outstrip the Internet, and will likely be more important for the next two to three years, the studios and networks are undergoing the same kind of transition the music industry faced. The latter got caught flat-footed, preferring to sue their customers rather than embrace a brave new reality. I’m guessing the movie and TV moguls have learned from those mistakes, as they are rushing headlong into online ad-supported streaming.

    The Old Media revenue sources upon which generations of SAG and AFTRA contracts have been built are starting to crumble. If the new contracts do not embrace the new reality, the actors (including me) risk turning themselves into a non-unionized labor force, with the attendant lack of power.

    Comment by mheister — March 10, 2008 @ 8:37 pm

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