At the plenary on Sunday, once again, the board showed a sign of weakness by voting to give AFTRA 72 hours to return to negotiations with the AMPTP. I wonder how long it will take our leadership to learn that the more you try and appease bullies, the more you encourage and empower them.
Beyond the fact that AFTRA board member Ratner has totally mischaracterized the facts, it is obvious by his remarks that AFTRA isn’t content to continue undercutting SAG contracts and giveaway actors’ residuals but to make the great Screen Actors Guild grovel in surrender.
I’m wondering how much more humiliation our great guild must endure before our leadership starts standing up for our membership, by acting like the greatest actors’ guild in the world, instead of lackeys for a group broadcasters and voice over performers that are screwing actors with inferior minimums and residual giveaways.
How much longer do our members have to put up with AFTRA’s arrogant behavior and predatory actions?
SAG offers AFTRA a seat at the table
Guild gives union until Wednesday to respond
By DAVE MCNARY
In a move that muddies the outlook for looming actor negotiations, leaders of the Screen Actors Guild have offered AFTRA the opportunity to rejoin SAG at the bargaining table.
SAG’s offer, made in a Sunday evening announcement, said AFTRA would have until Wednesday to respond. An AFTRA spokeswoman said the union would have no response until Monday at the earliest.
The move, which had not been expected, comes two weeks after AFTRA angrily split off from SAG over SAG’s alleged attempt to "raid" the soap "The Bold and the Beautiful" -- an allegation SAG has denied, insisting its leaders had merely responded to a castmember’s concerns about the AFTRA contract. The March 29 breakup of the 27-year joint bargaining relationship culminated years of hostility between the unions over jurisdictional issues.
One wonders how two SAG actress going to SAG, because the cast of the show is feed up with AFTRA is raiding, while AFTRA’s undercutting of the spinoff of “That’s So Raven,” a SAG show is not.
SAG’s brief announcement on Sunday said only that 81% of its national board had OK’d the offer, which was approved at the tail end of a daylong meeting at the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Los Angeles. In recent months, the AFL-CIO has been attempting -- with little success so far -- to smooth out the extensive disputes between the thesp unions.
SAG’s talks with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers on a new feature-primetime deal are set to begin Tuesday, while AFTRA’s talks on its primetime contract are set to start April 28. A spokesman for the AMPTP said the group would have no comment.
Should AFTRA spurn SAG’s offer, the guild will be under pressure to reach an agreement with the AMPTP by April 28 or face the prospect of ongoing jurisdictional warfare with AFTRA. Should SAG fail to reach an agreement by then, AFTRA’s expected to make a deal quickly -- since its leaders tend to be far more moderate than SAG’s and its deal covers just three shows -- and then go after new shows in areas of shared jurisdiction.
So, where was the AFL-CIO, as AFTRA took over SAG’s jurisdiction with their sellout of actors. They ballyhoo AFTRA’s Charter with them, but completely ignore the charter SAG has with the entertainment jurisdictional arm of the AFL-CIO, the 4A’s, which mandates that SAG has jurisdiction over all acting on TV except that which is done in the manner of a LIVE BROADCAST. So why the hell is SAG paying them an annual half-million dollars for?
SAG’s heading into the negotiations with a fractured front. Over the weekend, SAG leaders split over a divisive proposal that would have limited member voting on the contract to thesps who work at least one day a year.
In its meeting Saturday in downtown Los Angeles, about 60% of SAG’s national board sent the proposal to its guild governance review committee for study -- effectively keeping it from having an impact on contract negotiations.
The bargaining is likely to be contentious, given that recent informal talks with Disney CEO Robert Iger and News Corp. president Peter Chernin went nowhere. And SAG president Alan Rosenberg raised a red flag over the weekend in a letter to members by reiterating that SAG must achieve an increase in DVD residuals -- a position that’s a nonstarter for the congloms.
The "qualified voting" proposal, by limiting voting to SAG members who work regularly, probably would have resulted in less support for a possible strike when the contract expires June 30. But opponents have asserted that the idea is elitist and goes against the democratic principles of SAG.
The vote followed the usual divisions, with Hollywood reps supporting the referral and reps from New York and the regional branches voting against it. The proposal was modified by Hollywood reps before being sent to committee to include language instituting a work requirement as a condition of board membership.
The same AFTRA First, SAG board members that have supported AFTRA’s taking away actors residuals, are the same one’s that want to take away their vote.
SAG’s been pressured by high-profile members to institute some form of qualified voting. More than 1,500 members signed the petition, including Kevin Bacon, Amy Brenneman, Sally Field and Charlie Sheen.
As anyone who was involved in the 2000 strike knows, the above high-profile members, who want to base a members right to vote on collective bargaining agreements on their earnings, were nowhere to be seen. Huh, they don’t want to take away their right to carry a picket sign. It’s just their right to vote.
Rosenberg predicted earlier this month that the measure would not pass and labeled it ill-timed, asserting that such a move detracts from efforts to present a united front at the bargaining table.
SAG member Ned Vaughn, who led the effort to bring the proposal to the board, called the move a stalling tactic and asserted that referring the measure to the committee assured it would not take effect until after the SAG negotiations. He also said the decision showed SAG leaders are not serious about the issue.
"That our proposal has now been referred to ‘the committee where things go to die’ (as one board member called it when relating the news) leads us to believe that there is not a will to address this issue seriously among current Guild leadership," he said. "We will obviously get reaction from the 1500+ members who strongly support the proposal, and decide how to proceed based on the response. This much is certain: the effort to give working actors an effective voice in contract decisions will not go away."
So, a little over one percent of SAG’s members want to take a way most of our members vote, and they complaining because, SAG is following constitutional procedure. Here’s a thought, if these entitled ones want to change things. Why don’t they form a “Qualified Voting” slate and run in the upcoming election. It would be a landslide, but, ah, they might not like it.
Rosenberg also released a letter to members Saturday, taking a firm stance on bargaining -- but without mentioning the possibility of a strike. The positions, which did not cite specific figures, included a "long overdue" increase to the DVD/Home Video formula.
The WGA sought an increase in the two-decades-old DVD/homevid formula, but dropped the idea a few hours before it went on strike Nov. 5 as part of the last-ditch efforts to avoid a work stoppage. WGA leaders were incensed the AMPTP did not make enough of a move in response to the guild taking the proposal off the table.
The DGA did not propose an increase in DVD residuals.
Rosenberg noted the feature-primetime pact that’s up for negotiations represents more than $1 billion in annual earnings.
Although Rosenberg has said repeatedly that he doesn’t want a strike, the town has continued to worry about SAG’s assertive stance and its close alliance with the WGA during the writers strike. Those concerns have led to a ramp-up of feature production with the goal of finishing shooting by the end of June as a hedge against a work stoppage.
Rosenberg stressed in the letter that SAG’s major goal is to improve pay for working actors, asserting they’ve been squeezed out of showbiz in recent years.
"We have to negotiate fair payments for all new-media formats to help us expand opportunities for middle class actors to get more work, just as the employers are expanding their opportunities to earn even more revenue," Rosenberg said. "We simply can’t wait until this boat has sailed. We need to be on the boat -- and it’s leaving now."
SAG also said its proposals cover "major role" actors (featured, guest stars, weekly players); extras; increased employer contributions to pension and health; eliminating "forced endorsement" in which members wind up not being paid for commercials that are written to the script; "fair market value" language; and improvements and protections for young performers, stunt performers, performers with disabilities, dancers and others.
SAG said it will hold a town hall meeting in Los Angeles on April 29 and in New York on April 30 to update members.
In a touch of irony, both SAG and AFTRA also are participating in Tuesday morning’s rally at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles to launch a three-day March to the Docks to show labor solidarity among local unionists. Esai Morales will speak on behalf of SAG while Jason George will appear for AFTRA.
The real irony is that Jason George will speak on solidarity, ah, I wonder if he’ll tell those gathered union members that he wants to take away most of AFTRA and SAG members right to vote? You think.
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In what the Ol’ Dog can only describe as strange, SAG has offered AFTRA the right to have two observers at their negotiations, in return AFTRA has offered to let them have observers.
So, AFTRA will learn how are negotiations are going, and then they will let us observe their negotiations, ah, unless, they change their mind at the last minute.
SAG starts talks with majors
Guild negotiating without AFTRA
By DAVE MCNARY
With Hollywood thoroughly unnerved by the prospect of a summer strike, the Screen Actors Guild and the majors begin negotiations today on the feature-primetime contract -- but without AFTRA after a last-ditch peacemaking effort by SAG fell flat.
The talks were set to launch at 10 a.m. PT at the Encino headquarters of the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers. And they won't include the American Federation of Television & Radio Artists even though SAG asked its sister union late Sunday to rejoin it at the bargaining table, two weeks after AFTRA angrily split off from SAG.
SAG told AFTRA it would have until Wednesday to respond, but AFTRA didn't need nearly that long. AFTRA national exec director Kim Roberts Hedgpeth fired off a frosty letter to SAG counterpart Doug Allen that dismissed the idea out of hand, asserting it was impossible to gather negotiating committee members on short notice and stressing that the problems that caused the divorce hadn't been resolved.
Her letter said SAG had failed to include language that would preclude SAG from "raiding" AFTRA shows that have decertified, asserting that a motion to do so was voted down Sunday. AFTRA leaders broke off the 27-year bargaining partnership with SAG on March 29, asserting that the guild's alleged attempt to help decertify soap "The Bold and the Beautiful" was the "last straw" in a long line of SAG transgressions that included besmirching the reputations of AFTRA's leaders via its campaign about AFTRA allegedly shilling for producers by signing cable deals at rates lower than SAG's.
The tone of Hegpeth's letter makes it clear that AFTRA will not agree to patch things up, due to the profound level of mistrust between leaders of the two performers unions. "The Strategy Cabinet members determined that there does not appear to be any evidence that the underlying problems, which forced the members of the national board to take the action they did on March 29, have been or will soon be resolved," she said.
SAG prexy Alan Rosenberg has denied any misconduct, and accused AFTRA of misinterpreting the circumstances surrounding "The Bold and the Beautiful" as a pretext for signing lowball contracts with the majors. He's also noted SAG's board approved a motion on March 29 pledging it would not raid the show.
SAG leaders have said repeatedly they don't want a strike, but the town has continued to worry about the guild's assertive stance. Those worries have led to the current ramp-up of feature production, with shoots now timed to finish by June 30 -- when the SAG contract expires -- as a hedge against a work stoppage.
So the only AFTRA reps at today's talks will be staff observers, in accordance with standard practice in guild negotiations with the AMPTP. AFTRA's talks on its primetime contract are set to start April 28, placing pressure on SAG to make a deal before then or face the prospect of AFTRA using its deal to expand its coverage in areas of shared jurisdiction.
It's not yet clear whether SAG and the AMPTP will agree to a news blackout during the talks.
Today's session will be the first for SAG with Allen at the helm. Allen joined SAG early last year after more than two decades as No. 2 exec with the NFL Players Assn., with the specific mandate to take an aggressive bargaining stance.
Allen has insisted SAG has to keep the threat of a strike alive during negotiations. "Without that, collective bargaining becomes collective begging," he's said on several occasions.
SAG and AFTRA worked out similar proposals in the weeks prior to the divorce -- including an increase in DVD residuals, even though that position's a nonstarter for the congloms. Both unions are also going into the talks with proposals for improvements in new-media residuals, athough the majors have already indicated they won't go beyond the terms in the WGA and DGA deals.
But AFTRA's viewed as much less likely than SAG to push hard for its positions, so the upcoming round of talks are viewed as the more crucial.
SAG's proposals include improved terms for "major role" actors (featured, guest stars, weekly players); extras; increased employer contributions to pension and health; eliminating "forced endorsement," in which members wind up not being paid for commercials that are written into a script; "fair market value" language; and improvements and protections for young performers, stunt performers, performers with disabilities, dancers and others.
In conjunction with the launch of talks, the Los Angeles Federation of Labor is starting its three-day "Hollywood to the Docks" march today at Hancock Park with a 9 a.m. rally. SAG board member Esai Morales is scheduled to appear.
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AFTRA Board Member's terms for AFTRA returning to negotitions with SAG 
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