Our upcoming negotiations -- starting with SAG on April 15th and AFTRA on April 28th -- will be guided by the same principles that helped us reach groundbreaking agreements with the DGA and the WGA:
Ø First, we are committed to creating a genuine economic partnership with the talented men and women who help us create entertainment. That means that we should all share fairly in the revenues we generate -- including new revenue from the emerging areas of new media.
Ø Second, our new economic partnership must give all of us the flexibility we need to adapt to rapidly changing markets and technologies. Too many industries have failed to respond quickly enough to these changes, and we are determined to position our businesses -- and the employees and shareholders who rely on them -- to succeed and grow in this challenging environment.
Ø Third, actors, directors, writers, and the people who work behind-the-scenes on entertainment productions are all vitally important to our mutual business endeavors. We remain committed to ensuring that the rewards of our success are distributed fairly among all of our industry’s talent, so that we all have appropriate and meaningful stakes in the outcome of our work.
Ø Fourth, we will continue to work as hard as we can -- and to make the reasonable compromises that are necessary -- to avoid any additional, needless work stoppages. Fortunately, the three labor agreements already reached -- with the DGA, the WGA, and the AFTRA Network Code -- provide the new framework for our industry’s economic future. We hope that our negotiations with SAG and AFTRA will bolster this new economic framework, enabling all of us to share equitably in the success of new media and to respond with creativity and swiftness to market changes. If our industry relies on this new framework, we can all avoid more harmful and unnecessary strikes.
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Here is SAG's response from Doug Allen, National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator:
“Screen Actors Guild is ready to start formal bargaining and looks forward to productive negotiations with the AMPTP beginning April 15th.”
Did they really just use the phrase “new economic partnership”? That’s the same name they used for the attempted screwjob they tried to force on the writers in the middle of the WGA strike. Talk about tin-eared…
Comment by Marc Guggenheim — April 7, 2008 @ 4:24 pm
If they lead in with Nick Counter we’ll know that they don’t mean one word of their pleasant-sounding statement.
Comment by Walk The Line — April 7, 2008 @ 5:40 pm
Nope, they said: “genuine economic partnership”. As for the “screwjob” you refer to, aparrently the majority of WGA disageeed with you when ratifiying their contract. Oh I know corporate shill, blah blah blah…..
Comment by Transpo399 — April 7, 2008 @ 5:42 pm
Transpo399,
Yes, corporate shill, blah, blah, blah. Why a union transpo guy defends a bunch of scab-hiring suits is beyond me. I would love to see you try to drive through a bunch of ironworkers. They could give you the rosary.
Comment by Paul — April 7, 2008 @ 7:14 pm
“…will be guided by the same principles that helped us reach groundbreaking agreements with the DGA and the WGA…”
Uh-oh… we’re hosed!
Comment by Ed Green — April 7, 2008 @ 7:52 pm
Transpo399 writes:
“Nope, they said: ‘genuine economic partnership.’”
In the second paragraph. Read the THIRD paragraph.
“As for the ’screwjob’ you refer to, aparrently the majority of WGA disageeed with you when ratifiying their contract.”
Wrong again. The so-called “New Economic Partnership” was offered by the AMPTP in December 2007 and not even presented to the WGA for ratification. The contract that was ultimately voted on and ratified by the membership bore no relationship whatsoever to the N.E.P.
“Oh I know corporate shill, blah blah blah…..”
I don’t think you’re a “corporate shill.” Clearly, however, you didn’t read the entirety of the AMPTP’s statement nor are you particularly well-versed in how the WGA negotiations unfolded.
Comment by Marc Guggenheim — April 7, 2008 @ 9:17 pm
The AMPTP wants to implant the idea that SAG in particular should accept pattern bargaining based on the DGA and WGA contracts, and the AFTRA Network Code.
The AMPTP is pretending to sound reasonable, but the fact is that actors’ contract needs vary in a number of significant ways from those of the directors and writers. A couple of examples. Neither of those professions commonly deals with the association of your name, likeness, voice, and public image to a product placed in a scripted program, thus adversely affecting your ability to do certain commercial work. Also, the DGA and WGA deals cut their members out of work on lower-budget pilots shot - ostensibly - for the Internet. Actors know that footage is footage, and footage doesn’t care if it’s streamed via Quicktime or through a television network.
As for the AFTRA Network Code, have the details of that been made public? If they have and I missed it, please clue me in. What I do know is the last press release AFTRA put out on the subject says about New Media, “Terms for original dramatic programs made directly for new media will be negotiated during AFTRA’s “Exhibit A” negotiations for primetime dramatic programming.” In other words, they put it off to this current negotiation, so there is no New Media pattern yet set in the AFTRA contract.
Note also the AMPTP says they want the “rewards of our success… distributed fairly among all of our industry’s talent”. This is a fancy way of saying, the WGA and DGA gave us all these concessions, so SAG should too. SAG President Alan Rosenberg is already on record with his reservations about some aspects of those two deals, including DVD residuals. And a lot of actors see no sense in giving the AMPTP a 17-day window on New Media when the stats show the vast majority of downloads happen within the first week of initial release.
Implicit also in the AMPTP’s statement is the idea that the DGA and WGA have already signed “fair” contracts, a point which may be easily disputed. The concept of “fair” is wide open for interpretation. To me, “fair” is the best possible contract. The real issue is not what’s fair, but what’s acceptable. If I had to guess, I’d say SAG’s threshold of what’s acceptable in a contract is pegged at a significantly different point than its sister unions.
Comment by mheister — April 7, 2008 @ 11:27 pm
So, the AMPTP “…will be guided by the same principles that helped us reach groundbreaking agreements with the DGA and the WGA….”
Translation: Bend over.
Comment by Anonymous — April 8, 2008 @ 2:22 am
Oh Oh. Sounds like it’s going to be a loooooong summer
Comment by Navin79 — April 8, 2008 @ 6:34 am
You’re right, I missed the line in the second paragraph, sorry.
As for the comment:
“I would love to see you try to drive through a bunch of ironworkers. They could give you the rosary.”
Sounds like you think that the WGA runs a strike like the Iron Workers or Teamsters would - not even close pal. The WGA made it too easy for production to continue with their weak short hours picket lines. Those bankers hours lines were a joke to real unions.
Advice to SAG would be if you’re really gonna do it, do it all the way or don’t do it at all.
Comment by Anonymous — April 8, 2008 @ 10:09 am
If the AMPTP’s dealings with the WGA are any indication, SAG is in for a long-haul. Remember, nothing the AMPTP can be taken at face value — or any value, for that matter. These are, after all, the same people who refused to put in writing a handshake agreement about “Favored Nation Status” for the WGA.
As for the AMPTP’s suggestion that “we should all share fairly in the revenues we generate — including new revenue from the emerging areas of new media,” well, I would suggest that SAG look to what the AMPTP offered in their first salvos to the WGA for a hint at what they mean by ’share fairly.’
Comment by BillBBill Fordes Fordes — April 8, 2008 @ 12:52 pm
I see the death of sag here. I talked to a producer today, He was telling me about this cable show he’s doing. He told me there was a good chance it would wind up on the network that own the cable network. It’s already happened Monk Mis Guided and Dexter.
He is telling his crew, who are getting lower rates, that if Sag strikes they will keep working. A great carrot for a good crew.
So all you Sag people who are jumping up and down ready to strike, you may find that Aftra will steal it all.
Comment by just a thought — April 8, 2008 @ 3:38 pm