Heck, as an IA member I gotta say that analogy appears to apply to some of our locals as well even though Short is supposed to represent our interests.

NY and way below the line

thanks for the info

i guess i didnt make my question clear. I am curious to find out how it came about that two unions represent the same people and are directly competing for the same work.

can u or anybody else enlighten me on this? i am not certain i have ever heard of two unions in direct compettion with eachother like this.

When merger was being considered back in ‘99, we were told that failure to merge would lead to the two unions, in effect, competing to offer increasingly bad contracts to the producers. We’re seeing that happen now.

We should have merged back in ‘99.

If SAG and AFTRA don’t stop trying to destroy each other, AMPTP will destroy them both, and all of us with them. I can just see Nick Counter and his crew gleefully rubbing his hands the more nonsense like this goes on. How the fuck did we get whiny little child-men and child-women running the unions instead of ADULTS!!

Unless you are a shill, but for the benefit of all who are reading this: The jurusdictional battle has been with digital; all of a sudden Aftra has claimed that “digital changes everything”…NOT. Aftra has had jurisdiction over live broadcast, SAG over filmed content. Aftra has claimed that the way of capturing performance is different now that another way of capturing changes the rules. That is not true.

Look at the rule books of both SAG and Aftra. It is clearly spelled out. Do some homework.

To “Another Working Actor” (and geez, I wish everyone had the balls to identify themselves):

To go to what you perceive is an easy answer: Merge!!!
I say to you–have you heard of the Mercer Report, that stated that by merging our two unions, that it would be a detriment to the SAG members? Hello?

Most actors are dual card holders. We should all be in one union that fights for the best wages and working conditions possible. Why should SAG merge with Aftra? Why metasticize that cancer? Aftra has consistently shown themselves as an organization that is ready to cave at the least sign of trouble.

Aftra is living off of SAG in the Branches, (they have never had any offices open on their own; right now they are sucking $2 million of SAG dues, living off of SAG), and they are giving away residuals on Nickleodeon and Basic-Cable in order to claim jurisdiction.

I am flabergashted at members who seem to be entrenched with the idea that Aftra has any integrity when it comes to actors.

Aftra contains many people in this industry who are not actors; broadcasters, disk jockeys, weatherpeople, game show hosts, etc…. (Who vote on the upcoming TV/Theatrical contract, by the way). What do they have to do with acting? Doesn’t it seem to you that actors should all be in one Union? There are 40 thousand actors who are dual csrd holders; shouldn’t we all be in one Union? Solidarity, yes?

The ugly truth is that Aftra would be nothing without Actors….that is where they make their money. So they are selling out actors in order to get jurisdiction, in order fill their coffers.

Broadcasters, who are also members of Aftra, are not Unionized. CNN, MSNBC, FOX, ect…are not union, yet the broadcasters are members of Aftra, and they are not held to the standard of Union organization. Hello Larry King, as one example.

Aftra cannot organize “live”, but they dare to try to organize scripted programming, which has been SAG jurisdiction? It is disengenuous to say the least.

Aftra has been sucking hind tit long enough. The Matt Kimbrough retraction of solidarity is another example that Aftra is not run by its members, but is run by hired staff. Unfortunate, but true.

Remember that board members are not paid. We work from a desire to represent our membership. Paid staff get their monthly salary no matter what happens. And when paid staff influences any board member, I have to question: Who is in charge?

But I wish we had an agency agreement too.

The drafter of the so-called “joint” SAG/AFTRA motion referenced above knew damned well these W&W sessions were not “joint” meetings, but co-hosted meetings. (This same drafter authored the Summer 2007 motions to disable Phase-One-to-Merger with AFTRA.) So to NOW be screaming bloody murder at AFTRA and at Mr. Kimbrough - an AFTRA-appointed volunteer who has given of his time for all of us at the W&W sessions - is the height of disingenuousness…perhaps more appropriate to say, horseshit.

To attempt once again to ram this kind of tactical, divisive, mulled-over crap down working members’ throats is not unexpected, considering the source.

To go from a year of shrill, ugly AFTRA-bashing to suddenly feigning shock and horror at a misstep by an AFTRA-appointed W&W moderator, is far from the much-needed spirit of solidarity we’ll need to survive these looming negotiations.

Membership First blog-scribes, dismount from your too-high horses, holster your pens, and thank Mr. Kimbrough for his hard work on your behalf.

You owe the man and all of us who enjoy membership in both SAG and AFTRA an apology for perpetrating this charade upon the membership.

The air is so poisonous at this point, I think it’s time to let SAG present their strike authorization to the membership and see if they can get it passed.

If they can (which I think is unlikely), let’s see what kind of deal they get.

As a working actor in both unions, the care, feeding, education and health care of my children depend on two movie/TV salaries. My wife and I have been through months of strike. We can probably handle a few more.

After that, all bets are off.

Who benefits? Why, the AMPTP of course. While your superior officers bicker over semantics the AMPTP’s snipers are given plenty of time to put a bead on their heads. I don’t need to tell you what happens next.

“With friends like these, who needs enemies?”

Only the morons of today will be to blame when the AMPTP is still screwing this industry over a century from now. Every golden opportunity to strike a hard long-term blow against The Man that’s been presented has been thrown away in favor of less short-term conflict. Time will tell: Your unwillingness to fight now will ensure that someone else will have to fight your fight later, and your lack of resolve only encourages the AMPTP to remain belligerent until they get what they want in all situations.

Thanks for doing the wrong thing again for us, in our name. As a union member, I’d like to say it’s really appreciated. Maybe in the next year or so, you could figure out a way to eliminate pension and health coverage.

Oh, and maybe you could also get that show to pay me the 20 thousand they own me. It’s only been a year and a half since I did the job.