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SAG Hollywood Membership Meeting packs them in.

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Date: Sunday 10/19/2008

Posted 10/19/08 The Hollywood Membership Meeting took place following the SAG National Board’s Plenary at the Marriott Hotel in Downtown Los Angeles. The Grand Ballroom was standing room only with a crowd estimated between 700 and 800 members who heard that despite the recent stock market plunge that SAG’s Pension and Health plan was in good shape, as where SAG’s coffers with $30,000,000 dollars. This was not a timid crowd. When asked by SAG First VP Anne-Marie Johnson to stand if they were for a strike authorization all but a few of the capacity crowd stood in unison. President Alan Rosenberg spoke about the producers’ final offer reminding those in the audience that one rollback they wanted, Force Majeure had been in effect since SAG’s First Collective bargaining agreement. He also mentioned that accepting the AMPTP’s proposal allowing signatories to engage in non-union productions with no residuals, could affect the upcoming commercial negotiations where they would try the same thing. Where they could produce an under $15,000 dollar a minute commercial non-union for, say, ABC.com, and then rerun it on network television without residuals. One indication that perhaps some of the tentative agreements SAG had originally agreed to, might be off the table, came when President Alan Rosenberg talked about network moveovers to the Internet for rerun streaming. He explained that instead of the 3300 bucks he would receive, as a series co-star, for a network rerun, would be reduced to less than a hundred bucks for a year’s worth of unlimited Internet reruns! It seems many on the board have had second thoughts on this proposal due to the negative impact that it would have, not only, on members ability to qualify for P&H, but on smaller agents who, unlike power agencies, only source of income is a percentage of their clients income. (Ten percent of 22 bucks for a years' worth of unlimited "moveover plays" on the Internet is what, two dollars and twenty cents?) In regards to the mediator and a strike authorization, SAG NED Doug Allen explained if the AMPTP refused mediation, that would trigger a strike authorization being sent to the membership. Well, there’s the pitch, Nick! Whether you take a strike or not is up to you, Babe. A.L. Miller SW Editor & Chief

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