Today's statements from SAG and AFTRA about this weekend's split. (Splitsville Over TV Soap: Why AFTRA Now Refuses To Jointly Negotiate With SAG):
From: SAG President Alan Rosenberg
Date: March 30, 2008 8:08:40 PM PDT
To: SAG Members
Subject: AFTRA ENDED JOINT BARGAINING RELATIONSHIP WITH SAGDear Screen Actors Guild members,
You will hear many things over the next few days about AFTRA’s decision to effectively terminate our Phase One joint bargaining relationship. We have been jointly bargaining several contracts with AFTRA since 1981 and the AFTRA board voted yesterday to end that relationship (under the Phase One Agreement) and forge ahead without SAG.
AFTRA HAS THREE TELEVISION SHOWS UNDER THIS CONTRACT AND THEY DON’T COVER MOTION PICTURES.
As your President, I feel it is important that you have the facts.
AFTRA leaders claim…That SAG attempted to “raid” its jurisdiction and to “campaign” to help The Bold & The Beautiful daytime drama actors decertify from AFTRA.
FACT: Actors from the show, who are also SAG members, asked to meet with us. We heard their complaints of extreme dissatisfaction with AFTRA, AND DIRECTED THEM TO TALK WITH AFTRA. We did not have a campaign of any kind.
AFTRA leaders claim… The Bold & The Beautiful incident was “the last straw,” but waited more than two weeks to raise the issue. Instead, the day before the joint SAG/AFTRA board meeting, they alerted the press (not SAG) and accused us of poaching. Two days earlier, they had participated in our two-day national joint Wages & Working conditions meeting where members of both unions VOTED UNANIMOUSLY to approve the proposal package. Didn’t the “last straw” matter then?
AFTRA never has stated how it plans to come to the aid of the B &B actors. They are too busy blaming us for the problem. Institution first, members last.
FACT: SAG IS NOT INVOLVED IN ANY WAY IN ORGANIZING DAYTIME DRAMA ACTORS. While we have great respect for daytime actors, this is AFTRA’s area. In fact, the SAG national board passed a motion Saturday morning to assure AFTRA (as AFTRA requested) that SAG will abide by the AFL CIO rules regulating raiding.
FACT: Despite this expression of good faith and reassurance from SAG, AFTRA leaders voted to “suspend” Phase One and go it alone. They marched into our board meeting, said they would not be bargaining jointly, and left. The joint board meeting to approve the proposal package for joint bargaining never even took place.
AFTRA leaders claim …SAG has undertaken a campaign to discredit them.
FACT: AFTRA bargained cable deals at rates lower than SAG minimums and waived residuals. They fully admit this and are now getting backlash from members who are wondering where their residuals went. AFTRA must be accountable for granting these waivers to the contracts we have fought hard to achieve. Again, how is this problem SAG’s fault? Will they now go bargain these sub-standard contracts for primetime network/pay TV programs and lower the bar for all SAG actors in the process?
AFTRA claims …that SAG Hollywood leaders are looking for a strike.
FACT: Not true. Nobody wants a strike, especially after the 100 day WGA strike. Elected SAG leaders across the country want to be strong on your behalf at the bargaining table. YOU elected your leadership. You elected me to achieve the best possible wages and working conditions. While the DGA and WGA made deals, we are not directors or writers. We are actors, and actors have different issues that are not in the DGA and WGA deals.
What’s next?
We will begin negotiations. We believe the AMPTP will be eager to do so, especially since motion picture start dates are critical. Your national board approved the proposal package yesterday that so many members contributed to during our W & W process. We are ready to negotiate.
Members are our first priority, not the institution. As your president, I vow to continue to work hard to improve the lives of all actors and their families. You deserve nothing less.
---
American Federation of Television and Radio Artists NEWS RELEASE
March 30, 2008
-- AFTRA National Board Overwhelmingly Approves to Suspend Phase One Joint Bargaining with SAG and Makes Plan to Negotiate Primetime TV Contract on Its Own-- Board also unanimously approved the AFTRA Network Television Code and the AFTRA Sound Recordings Code, and adopted procedures for membership ratification
LOS ANGELES -- The National Board of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists -- a national union of more than more 70,000 performers, journalists, broadcasters, recording artists, and other talent working in the entertainment and news media -- overwhelmingly voted Saturday in favor of suspending the joint bargaining process under the Phase One agreement with the Screen Actors Guild and plans to negotiate the Primetime TV contract with employers on its own.
"AFTRA's leadership believes that our union must devote its energies first and foremost to working on behalf of performers," said Roberta Reardon, National President of AFTRA. "During the past year, AFTRA has fought hard and expended an enormous amount of time, energy, and resources to maintain the integrity of our Phase One joint bargaining process with Screen Actors Guild so we could sit across the table from the industry with total and unequivocal unity. Unfortunately, SAG leadership has made this impossible.
"For the past year, SAG leadership in Hollywood has engaged in a relentless campaign of disinformation and disparagement, culminating in a recent attempt to decertify an AFTRA daytime soap opera. As a result of this continued and ongoing behavior by SAG leadership, which at its core harms all working performers and the labor movement, we find ourselves unable to have confidence in their ability to live up to the principles of partnership and union solidarity. AFTRA believes it must now devote its full energies to working on behalf of performers, and not wasting time assessing whether our partner is being honest with us.
"The board's approval of a suspension of Phase One -- not a termination -- was mindful of the fact that there many among SAG's leadership that are as troubled by the events that have led us to this point as we are. We are hopeful that someday, the historic trust between these two organizations can be rebuilt -- in the best interests of all performers," said Reardon.
Given the suspension of joint bargaining with SAG, the AFTRA National Board cancelled the joint meeting with the SAG board and instead continued its special session.
After a review of the recommendations from the AFTRA-SAG Joint Wages and Working Conditions Committee, the National Board unanimously approved the proposals en banc and without amendment to serve as the official AFTRA proposal package for negotiations with employers on the AFTRA Exhibit A to the Network Code that covers primetime dramatic programming. The National Board also approved the Negotiating Committee appointed by AFTRA National President Roberta Reardon, with Los Angeles actor and AFTRA National Treasurer Matt Kimbrough as chair.
The AFTRA National Board also approved tentative agreements reached with employers for the AFTRA Network Television Code and the AFTRA Sound Recordings Code and adopted procedures for membership ratification of the contracts.
In unanimously approving the tentative agreement with the four major television networks and producers on the AFTRA Network TV Code, the National Board noted that 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."This agreement is a major milestone for AFTRA as substantial gains in wages and working conditions for performers were successfully achieved," said Reardon, who also served as chair of the Network Code Negotiating Committee. "This contract is extraordinary for performers and made significant progress on many fronts, including importantly new media jurisdiction and compensation."
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."
The National Board voted to recommend the agreement in a mail referendum ballot to the entire AFTRA membership.
The National Board also unanimously approved the tentative agreement for the AFTRA Sound Recordings Code -- the national contract with the recording industry, which covers royalty artists and session singers who work with the more than 1,200 recording companies, including the four major labels -- EMI, Sony BMG, Universal Music Group, and Warner -- and most of their subsidiary labels. In addition to popular music in all genres, the Sound Recordings Code covers classical recordings, Broadway cast albums, Latin recordings, and spoken word recordings, including audio books.
"This is a breakthrough agreement for AFTRA members," said Randall Himes, AFTRA Assistant National Executive Director for Sound Recordings and co-lead negotiator for AFTRA. "The members of the AFTRA negotiating committee -- session and royalty singers, rap artists, and other performers across all fields of recorded music from pop and hip-hop to Latin and country -- worked diligently to achieve this contract for their fellow AFTRA members. The challenge of negotiating while the industry is confronting both a digital transition and rampant piracy underscores the remarkable work of the committee members in keeping their focus."
Highlights of the agreement include wage increases for session performers,improvements in health and retirement coverage for royalty artists, and a new formula for compensation on digital downloads.
In recommending approval of the tentative agreement, the National Board determined that any AFTRA member in good standing who had earnings from the Sound Recordings Code since July 1, 2002, will be eligible to vote on the contract.
In other action:
-- Responding to the petition from more than 1,400 performers to define "affected members" for voting on contracts, the National Board authorized National President Roberta Reardon to appoint a committee, to be confirmed by the Administrative Committee, to review the so-called "Working Actors Voice" proposal and report recommendations to the National Board.
-- Recognizing the work needed to restructure the AFTRA Non-Broadcast/Industrial Code and to reorganize members and signatory employers, the National Board granted authority to the AFTRA Non-Broadcast/Industrial Steering Committee to seek an extension to the contract that expires April 30, 2008.
The AFTRA National Board is next scheduled to meet in a face-to-face plenary session in Los Angeles on June 6 and 7.
Wow. Which of the A’s in AFTRA stands for Asinine?
Comment by George Glass — March 31, 2008 @ 12:20 am
To Alan Rosenberg:
Please don’t be reluctant to strike just because the town has already been struck once this year. Your only consideration is and must be the welfare of us, your members. If on the day our contract expires the AMPTP’s offer doesn’t improve on the WGA “gains” (what a laugh) or close the 17-day free viewing window for internet programming or for that matter contain a sizable increase in DVD residuals, we have to be prepared to walk.
Don’t let them pit the rest of the town against the interests of your members.
Comment by Actor Bob — March 31, 2008 @ 12:59 am
So I’m curious as one of the many actor’s who haven’t paid their full dues to AFTRA even though they take the meager residuals that I earn to pay into their union.
If the union I’m forced into fills my inbox with useless emails, why didn’t I get a vote in this bypassing of phase one?
Because I’m not paid up?
But if that’s the case why do I have a AFTRA union number? An inbox full of emails concerning reality shows? Mailed newsletters that only come out when SAG voices real concerns about what two unions are to do about trying to serve one side of an industry? All the things a paid up member gets, except consideration.
So I get the information of one side, but not benefit of a vote? Are there other duel card actor’s in this town extremely frustrated as I am by this situation?
I would never have voted for this measure. We stand, as actors, to risk too much in wages, national PR, and more importantly: respect.
next move is the studios. which now they don’t have to make now. Because they can play two unions against each other. Thanks AFTRA.
And when my ‘my boys’ residual comes around…feel free to take that. but not my vote.
Comment by forced aftra member — March 31, 2008 @ 3:06 am
Actor Bob, you’re exactly the type of strike-happy freak that will potentially grind this town to a halt again. I keep saying this, but no one’s listening: if there’s another strike, it will KILL this industry, and what little good will is left in the hearts and minds of the public will be lost for good.
It is astounding to me that no one realizes this.
Comment by Can't Take It Anymore — March 31, 2008 @ 1:16 pm
You got what you wanted, and you’re still complaining. Now that’s MeFirst at work.
Go ahead, strike. Everybody’s already lost so much money already, what does a little more mean? You want to ruin AFTRA? At this rate it will be here long after you’ve destroyed SAG.
Comment by Robert — March 31, 2008 @ 1:38 pm
Dear ‘forced’ ….
AFTRA doesn’t let their members vote on most issues. The really important stuff is decided by the people running the union - members be damned. SAG is a lot more democratic, and for the most part a lot more professional in the way they run the business of show.
Comment by David Sobolov — March 31, 2008 @ 6:09 pm
Here are my thoughts on Saturday’s AFTRA bombshell…
I know a lot of what’s flying around about AFTRA suspending Phase One can appear as minutiae and insider baseball, but the devil is in the details.
I just read on one of the actors’ blogs the following and now oft-repeated statement: “Screen Actors Guild never wanted to end Phase One…”
…And Mars is made of Marzipan…
From SAG Board motions on “bloc voting” and “proportionality,” to a SAG-promulgated anti-Phase One petition paid for with SAG members’ dues money, to a threatened Phase One-dissolving member referendum in February, Membershipfirst Hollywood SAG Board members & SAG Exec Doug Allen have read from every page of the extra-legal playbook to try and short-circuit a fast-and-hard union-to-union contract with AFTRA — Phase-One-to-Merger. And after hiring outside legal counsel (with our dues $$$) and ultimately being told that virtually all of the above AFTRA-bashing was in fact extra-legal and unconstitutional, upon learning the truth Hollywood SAG Board members issued howls of frustration & rage heard from Wilshire to Warner Brothers.
Phase One is an agreement, a contract. It isn’t silly putty. NOW I understand why historians say if we don’t remember our mistakes, we are bound to repeat them.
In 1981 the SAG-side Phase 1 signers knew SAG had the disproportionately large share of the three-hour prime-time block of programming & motion pictures, while AFTRA had jurisdiction over the rest of the twenty-one hours of the daily broadcast clock. This is nothing new, so for Frances Fisher & friends to feign looks of horror and trot out the “We’ve got the lion’s share of the work” argument makes me wonder if they have any comprehension of what SAG & AFTRA leadership did for us in 1981 by creating Phase One in the first place.
Phase One’s purpose? To tie two entertainers’ unions with common membership together in negotiations to forestall competition. SAG leaders understood that then. Why not now? Something in the water? ADHD? Too much TV? Current SAG leadership expects AFTRA to sit idly by, smile wanly, and continue to jointly negotiate while a decertification of an AFTRA soap is being fomented?
And to hear over & over the “Lion’s share” argument mixed in with “We are ACTORS” makes me think of an aging cheerleader who returns to a high school reunion and must constantly remind everyone who she thinks she used to be back in the glory days, while she picks an old girlfriend’s pocket.
That, plus the assertion that AFTRA members don’t work prime-time theatrical and don’t have a stake in DVDs & residuals & new media?!? This is pure pig-poop. I prize my SAG resid checks from work I perform on motion pictures & prime-time tv programs as much as anyone else and am grateful for the movie trailer provision of the SAG theatrical contract under which dozens of us work every day.
Plus Hollywood SAG Boarders have this rather unseemly obsession with the John-Connolly-AFTRA-Prez-in-the-ladies-room incident years ago during AMPTP joint negotiations where they witnessed what they perceived as an in-the-girls’-toilet-political-putch-devil’s-deal done between AFTRA, SAG/NY & Regional SAG Branches, that forever kept SAG-side negotiators from achieving a decent contract. John is Exec of Actors Equity now and is currently unavailable to serve as bogeyman.
I demand that both my unions’ leadership act like adults with the members’ interests at heart. This pissing contest and “I’m top-o-show, I matter most,” is such disingenuous bullshit. If so, why must the current crop of elected Hollywood SAG leaders lean on background players for their political base?
When I see arguments like the above, I believe that what lurks beneath is the ache to belong, to still be seen as “in the acting game.” It’s the Hollywood in-the-club cult-of-showbiz-personality poison writ sad. We’re ALL wage slaves to the Man, and when elected Hollywood SAG officers start playing oneupsmanship and decertification brigandry on their sister union/erstwhile negotiating partner (union raiding: unconstitutional for AFL-CIO members) — I don’t give a shit if it’s coat-checkers and grass-mowers…these are unions, not Uzbek soccer teams.
If the current elected SAG leadership were sincere unionists, they would be in harmonious and single-minded relationship with AFTRA leadership over issues that affect us all, including joint bargaining, exhibition windows, P&H minimums, etc.
But what has our SAG dues money been spent on for the past year? Posturing, warring like aging frat & sorority brats throwing balloons filled with piss at the house next door, sending out anti-AFTRA attack pieces, and paying outside legal counsel only to be told that all of the above anti-AFTRA machinations are extra-legal and probably unconstitutional….That’s not unionism. And neither is salivating over a soap diva threatening to change t-shirts from AFTRA to SAG. Gosh, I wonder how much malice-aforethought & scheming went into THAT…THE VERY INCIDENT THAT HAS CRIPPLED SAG’s CHANCES OF GETTING A DECENT CONTRACT THIS TIME AROUND!!!! It gives the phrase “self-defeating” a whole new meaning.
And for the “Allens” to say AFTRA’s known about the Bold & Beaut problem for weeks is purposely conflating two totally separate incidents: 1) The enquiry put out by soap actors about foreign resids owed to them which was answered by AFTRA in March, and 2) The rude suprise that alledgedly a membership stalwart on the SAG Board advised Susan Flannery to start the decertification petition; this wasn’t known until last week and is the proverbial shit that hit the fan. (Why would Flannery wait 21 years to start an anti-AFTRA petition? She’s paid w-a-a-a-y over scale and reputedly has hiring & firing power on the show. Can she also say, “Sign my little petition or perhaps you’d like to seek work on Gen’l Hosp?” Who was her “friend” on the SAG Board who alledgedly bloody bad-mouthed AFTRA and said, “Yeahhhh, decert, baby; that’ll show ‘em.)
SAG leadership bats its eyelashes now and says, “Oh, yes, we always intended to bargain jointly with AFTRA,” and then licks its chops over a soap opera decertifying?!? This is the two-facedness of our masques of tragedy.
This isn’t a game. It isn’t spy-vs-spy in a magazine for thirteen year olds. It’s union versus management. If only the current claque of elected Hollywood SAG Board officers fully understood that.
Bill Ratner,
AFTRA National & L.A. Board Member — working SAG & AFTRA member since 1981
Comment by Bill Ratner — March 31, 2008 @ 6:37 pm
AFTRA looks pathetic here. THEY are the ones that have poached - Dirt and Benjamin Bratt’s new show are two that I know of. As a member of both unions, I hope that AFTRA wises up here. They don’t have the clout that SAG does, and they’re just distracting each other from the larger goals.
And I wholeheartedly agree with Actor Bob about a potential SAG strike. SAG must go forward with a strike with no thought toward the WGA strike. The AMPTP has to improve their offerings.
Comment by Dan — March 31, 2008 @ 7:31 pm
To “Can’t Take It Anymore”:
My point isn’t that we must go on strike, it’s that we can’t rule it out until we get what we need, and we can’t let other considerations stop us from getting what we need or we’ll end up with a shitty deal like the WGA’s, and for the same reason.
I’m anything but strike-happy. Like everyone else, I lost plenty during the writers strike, and I sure as hell hope we don’t have to follow suit.
But I absolutely can “take it” more, lots more, for as long as I have to.
Comment by Actor Bob — March 31, 2008 @ 9:45 pm
From Can’t Take It Anymore:
“I keep saying this, but no one’s listening.”
and
“It is astounding to me that no one realizes this.”
Yes, obviously the problem is EVERYBODY ELSE.
Comment by Ruthie — March 31, 2008 @ 9:56 pm
AFTRA looks pathetic? Even pro-Membership First Dave McNary at Variety says tonight that SAG has lost its leverage in the negotiations. SAG has dug itself into a hole - what to do? Stop digging! Focus on negotiations not on AFTRA.
Comment by btraven — March 31, 2008 @ 10:59 pm
The Screen Actors Guild never wanted to end Phase 1. Screen Actors Guild wanted proportional representation on the NegComm, since it was seated 50-50, even though Aftra earns 7% of the contract - 3 primetime television shows and no film. (WGA NegComm was seated proportionally, by the way, with more reps in Hollywood since there are more writers in Hollywood; the SAG portion of the NegComm, and all committees are seated proportionally also.)
The Bold & Beautiful decertification petition was/is circulated by actors on that show, and SAG sent those actors back to Aftra.
Soap Operas are covered by the NetCode, strictly Aftra. SAG has no jurisdiction.
We are talking about two different contracts. The TV/Theatrical contract which is/was jointly bargained by SAG and Aftra has nothing to do with Soaps.
It is apples and oranges. To use a cast of unhappy actors seeking a remedy in a NetCode contract as a way of ending Phase 1 is disingenuous, to say the least.
Now, we are in a new paradigm. Aftra has all the proposals jointly and unanimously agreed upon by a hard-working group of actors from both SAG and Aftra last Wednesday. (I do wonder why Aftra did not bring up the decertification issue in that meeting, and suspend Phase 1 then, instead of waiting till the last possible minute at Saturday’s lead-up to the Joint National Board meeting that was to show solidarity on the proposals.)
My concern is that actors will be hurt by Aftra going first into negotiations in what they call Exhibit A (primetime network scripted programming). Aftra has already low-balled actors in Basic-Cable (also Phase 1), with inferior wages & residual giveaways, so given this past behaviour, I do not hold much hope that actors will be treated any better in Exhibit A.
Comment by Frances Fisher — April 1, 2008 @ 12:05 am
After reading the press statements by both unions and the comment section here that just repeats the information the union gave them… I am convinced both sides are twisting the facts to their favor and the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Neither union has their hands clean in this fight, but have any of you thought to get the AFL-CIO’s take on the situation (to get an unbiased opinion) instead of blinding taking the side of your favorite union?
Comment by Intrigued — April 1, 2008 @ 6:41 am
Dear Intrigued,
To answer your question about the AFL-CIO, last Saturday at the 11th hour AFL-CIO mediators urged SAG Exec/Chief Negotiator Doug Allen to sign an agreement NOT to raid AFTRA signatory daytime programming in order to keep the peace. Mr. Allen declined to sign.
That should tell you a bit about what the AFL-CIO thinks should have happened to save the SAG/AFTRA joint negotiations, contrasted with Mr. Allen’s & the Hollywood SAG Board’s intentions: to raid AFTRA shows - illegal under Article 20 of the AFL-CIO Constitution.
How can you negotiate with a partner like that? You can’t. Mr. Allen’s actions have driven AFTRA to the table by itself and brought the Screen Actors Guild closer to the brink of genuine peril for all its members.
Comment by Bill Ratner — April 1, 2008 @ 4:12 pm
To Bill Ratner,
Instead of AFTRA pulling out of negotiation on contracts that have nothing to do with soaps, based on what seems to be disgruntled actors talking to their other union and asking them if there’s something they can do for them and being given advice, why doesn’t AFTRA do something about fixing whatever problem the B&B actors have that has led them to seek decertification. And can you show us a document/petition/vote form that SAG circulated to those actors to get them to actually vote to change-over? Because talking is not criminal. Asking questions of a union is not criminal. I’ve been in a few unions in my time and there are times you take your frustrations to your union and ask if you can help. Sometimes they even say no. But just listening doesn’t mean they are undercutting you.
And with all the saber-rattling at SAG for listening to the B&B’s complaints, I’ve yet to hear of AFTRA addressing or doing anything about the complaints so the B&B actors would change their minds about wanting to decertify.
Comment by Sifting for truth — April 1, 2008 @ 8:22 pm
To Sifting for Truth,
Your suggestions are good ones: members must engage in dialogue with their unions and not hesitate to bring important questions and demands to them. AFTRA did in fact respond directly to Bold & Beaut issues regarding what cast members thought they were owed in foreign residuals. This issue is completely separate & unrelated to the underhanded raiding/decertification efforts that came to light last week. SAG Exec Doug Allen refused to sign an anti-raiding agreement the AFL-CIO asked him to sign on behalf of SAG. That should tell the tale.
And the ratty crits put forth by SAG officers about AFTRA health plans, etc., are simply more of the clannish flag waving by SAG actors who were lucky enough to be elected to the SAG Board and are now making an amateur career out of union-busting & raiding — illegal under Article 20 of AFL-CIO Constitution.
Comment by Bill Ratner — April 2, 2008 @ 9:31 am
“Mr. Allen’s & the Hollywood SAG Board’s intentions: to raid AFTRA shows - illegal under Article 20 of the AFL-CIO Constitution.”
Yeah, well, if Sag actually did “raid” AFTRA shows, the compensation would shoot up into the stratosphere, which AFTRA should welcome if they’re for the best interests of all and not just protecting their own turf/power (an accusation that’s often wrongly levelled against WGA and SAG yet applies to IATSE and AFTRA). And BTW, the networks won’t allow it ever. So why are we even discussing it? Meanwhile, AFTRA is invading SAG’s jurisdiction in primetime, undercutting SAG by offering cut rate deals to the AMPTP and hurting everyone. If you were the AFL, what would you care about? ‘Damn that SAG, trying to improve pay and working conditions for actors. Why can’t they be more like AFTRA and bend over.’ AFL and AMPTP, not the same entity. AFTRA needs to stop this pissing contest and realize that actors doing better really isn’t a bad thing even if it does make the Big 8 unhappy.
Comment by Muronao — April 2, 2008 @ 1:47 pm
@ Muronao
What are you talking about when you say that the IA raids. I think your misinformed, and a jerk as well.
Comment by just a thought — April 2, 2008 @ 5:39 pm
Muronao,
You’re quoting urban myth. AFTRA has been offering terms & conditions identical to SAG’s in cable. Sopranos - a SAG show - had the same accursed “exhibition window” as AFTRA cable shows. It’s easy to parrot back the AFTRAispoachingundercutting myths. It’s harder to actually do the math and find that 80% of AFTRA cable is shot in the U.S., employing American actors. 50% of SAG cable shows are shot in the U.S. Why? SAG has been preoccupied for the last 5 years with poisonous politics, and charges small-time cable producers the same as Sopranos. AFTRA’s been organizing work for union actors.
Comment by bill Ratner — April 2, 2008 @ 7:14 pm
by just a thought, I didn’t actually say IATSE raids, I said IATSE’s leadership are out for themselves more than the welfare of the people they’re trying to represent (see the ‘America’s Next Top Model’ debacle for starters), much like AFTRA. Reading is Fundamental.
Bill, do you think for one minute that the networks would ever allow the soaps under the jurisdiction of SAG? It’s never, ever going to happen in a million years, and you know that even if you won’t admit it’s because it’s so much cheaper to go with AFTRA. So why is this being dragged in as a pretext for AFTRA to jump ship? It’s a non-starter and a distraction, and it calls into doubt AFTRA’s motivations, wouldn’t you say? The B&B cast aren’t idiots, and will realize that since their only opinions are AFTRA or no union representation, NOT SAG, decertifying is pointless.
Comment by Muronao — April 3, 2008 @ 9:24 pm
AFTRA I am happy they are going along. They don’t need SAG to hold their hand. they alreday have a tenative deal in place.
SAG is dragging its feet. As I type this its Sunday, April 6th 2008 at 141am. Alan Rosenberg Pres of SAG said they have time to negoiate their contract. No they dont. The contract expires JUNE 30th, thats 11 weeks.
I am so convinced that SAG doesnt care if they strike. The reason being ios that the actors in film and primetime TV make enough money from a series or one film to last them a while if a strike is pro-longed
But SAG and Rosenberg need to wake up and realize thatthe crews of these films and TV shows rely on that weekly pay check. They have mortages to pay etc. How about looking out for your crew SAG. AFTRA is doing that, you should be too. Stop playing the blame game, go lock urself in a room with the producers and don’t come out til an agreement is reached. thats your main concern right now, nOTHING ELSE.
Comment by John — April 5, 2008 @ 10:46 pm