* AFTRA uses the DON’T BELIEVE YOUR LYING EYES response on their “WORK FOR NOTHING” waiver. !! * Just when you thought AFTRA’s “go-along-to-get-along” leadership couldn’t sink any lower, they have come up with a waiver in which the actor gets NOTHING!

Here’s what happened: The actor goes to the audition for an AFTRA PSA commercial, and gets the part. The actor knows that SAG/AFTRA Public Service spots generally don’t pay residuals and that’s okay, but then when the actor shows up on the set, the actor is asked to sign the following waiver.

One of AFTRA’s leaders, currently an incumbent candidate on the AFTRA Leadership Team slate basically said “Actors make too much” well her and her “go-along-to-get-along” pals have got too love this one.

Yes, SAG also has a waiver for public service spots but it specifically states that the session fee can’t be waived and there is nothing in it about SAG taking the fee for the charity of its choice.

I mean, how about the part where the actor waives the session fee to AFTRA’s leaders, who then decide which ‘charity’ gets their money.

Hell, they wont show us their contracts, or the results of referendums…what do you want to bet that they won’t tell members where THEIR SESSION FEE MONEY IS GOING?

And the truly scary thing for SAG members is that the very USAN/UFS board members, who are now running SAG, are the same group of members that put AFTRA FIRST whenever it comes to any dispute between the two unions.

Caught with their pants down, the AFTRA Leadership on their ‘WORK FOR NOTHING’ waiver, has gone to ‘their kind of website,’ one run by a bunch of cowering cowards, who post anonymously, refusing to reveal their identity, with what can only be described as a “Don’t believe your lying eyes” defense.

You remember they used the same defense when they were accused of undercutting SAG cable contracts by giving away residuals. It was only after we posted those contracts that they said with straight faces “See we didn’t giveaway residuals…your initial minimum compensation covered them”

According to the Drizzlers at the Baghead website,” One AFTRA official called the website posting “spin,” noting that the production company may have violated the terms of the waiver:”

This begs the question of why the Ad Council or the production company would devise a waiver that would be of no benefit to them--as the actors money didn’t go to them, but, rather, was to be given to AFTRA to give to the charity of its choice. Hmmm….

Hey, I’m sure AFTRA will launch an investigation! Right? Right, and GM will be issuing stock dividends, soon.

AFTRA staff claims that their policy is the same as SAG’s. Well, here is SAG’s policy, and it does not include actors giving up minimums so the production company can give it to the union to use for an, ah, “Charity,” of IT'S choice.

And as we have seen in the past, the contracts may be the same but, ah, the waivers can be different. If you are an employer and you want it, AFTRA’s Leaders will give it to you.

If you look at the actual quotes attributed to AFTRA Officials you’ll note that they do not actually deny that the waiver is theirs.

One AFTRA official called the website posting “spin,” noting that the production company may have violated the terms of the waiver:

If it were a special case where a full waiver of session was permitted, and the employer did not give the performer a heads up in advance and simply shoved a paper in front of the performer at the session, that would be a problem. Under any waivers we grant, that is not how it should be done.

If that were the case, it would be up to the performer to register a complaint with the union - whether SAG or AFTRA. Another AFTRA exec reviewed the purported waiver and responded that the entire contract is improper:

This is not an AFTRA contract. The PSA policies are the same and further, we just jointly negotiated a uniform letter, which is to be use by all Signatories, and this is not it. This is a flagrant violation of our Agreement and the member(s) should report it to the office.

You'll notice they said, this is not an AFTRA Contract. They did not say “This is not an AFTRA Waiver.”