Well, kiddies, it seems Nickelodeon, which is pointed to by AFTRA as the shinning light of their organizing skills, may be soon be know for not only serving kids, but actually taking a piece of them.
The latest word is that they are acting more like child predators, than benefactors when it comes to negotiating with the most vulnerable of our acting community, our kids.
How would you like to be offered a contract that stipulates that you would have to forfeit 25 percent of any income earned outside of Nickelodeon TO NICKELODEON?
Or have a contract that allowed your original compensation to be freely applied to your residuals?
Or be so locked into your exclusive contract that you can make no appearances in TV, film or stage for anyone that Ol Nick deems to be a competitor?
But, hey, you would get the opportunity to get a lot of exposure by making plenty of publicity tours for no extra compensation.
Not to mention, those twenty free exhibition windows that first year with no residuals, but then it really wouldn’t make any difference if you were a regular making a few grand an episode because that would be freely applied to residuals anyway.
Hey, but they’re only kids, and AFRTA will look out for them, right?
These terms only prove that when an “AFTRA First/Actors Last” union like AFTRA starts to handout giveaways to actor’s employers to put money into their coffers, it’s only a matter of time before they will take more.
The good news for most you reading this little tidbit is that you are adults, and they wouldn’t dare try and pull this sh*t on you right? Don’t be so sure. Just a couple of years ago AFTRA only had ONE basic cable half-hour dramatic show. and NO One Hour shows. Now as a result of their sell out of actors residuals and minimums, they have twelve out of thirteen of the half-hour show, and nine of the hour shows for a total of 21 shows and the total is growing every day. And they have made it perfectly clear that unless SAG follows their lead they will start going after Prime Time shows.
So, whose fault is it your leadership, or maybe you because you remain silent? The truth is that in the final analysis, it is up too you, isn’t it?
Perhaps, you should let your leadership know that you want them to take action and enforce SAG’s AFL-CIO/4A jurisdiction that mandates that AFTRA’s only jurisdiction is over acting done in the manner of a LIVE BROADCAST! SAG was awarded the rest, which includes those Basic Cable Dramatic Shows that AFTRA is poaching with inferior minimums and residual giveaways.
What? Merger? Do you really want to join forces with a union that has already proven they will sell you out in a New York Minute? And, in the process, bring in hundreds of broadcasters who will NOT obey the edict of their own union to NOT do non-union work. You know like the ones working on CNN, Fox News, and CNBC and hundreds of non-union broadcast stations around the country.
If and when that happens you can kiss Rule One goodbye. Do you really think our actor members will obey a rule while other members don’t obey it?
The day that happens, we’ll end up like NBC, where AFTRA allowed unionized NBC broadcasters to walk across the hall and work non-union at MSNBC. Do you really think it was just a coincidence that they disenfranchised from AFTRA?
The minute our high-profile actors start to walk across the street from Universal to Warner Brothers, or Vice Versa, you can kiss our great guild goodbye.
But, good Ol Nick, Disney, FX, or all the other networks will never demand a piece of you, right?
A.L. Miller SW Editor & Chief
www.sagwatchdog.com
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Nickelodeon Wants a Piece of Hollywood’s Kids.
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