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A Quick Review: SAG-AFTRA Magazine Spring 2017

Well it certainly is Glossy!  Lots and lots of photos!

Our President is “amazed  at what we’ve accomplished together…”   Ah, okay!   She goes on, “‘The Crown is Magnificent.”   No wait that’s from the next page.

I especially enjoyed our National Executive Director David White boldly  stating, (“We must remain focused on what matters most — our members”) …especially in light of the fact that that listed on the In Memoriam page was Fred Allen 3/17/56…come on to be fair, he didn’t say anything about focused in a timely manner!!!

Uh…I did mention it was glossy, right?  In fact so much so,  it glossed right over the Ed Asner pursuit to make sure members get all their millions of dollars in residuals!

But then I did enjoy the ad on the final page where it boldly states:

YOUR UNION IN YOUR POCKET

However I might quibble about the photo below it.

Arl

The Ol’ SAG Watchdog

A quote from Fred Allen as we begin our negotiations: ” You can take all the sincerity in Hollywood, place it in the navel of a fruit fly and still have room enough for three caraway seeds and a producer’s heart.”  Huh?  And the Watchdog’s brain!  Woof!  Woof!

 

SAG-AFTRA Leaders Threatened With Suit Over Alleged Misconduct (EXCLUSIVE)

Film Reporter @Variety_DMcNary

April 21, 2017 | 03:58PM PT

Former SAG president Ed Asner and eight other SAG-AFTRA members have accused the union’s leadership of extensive misconduct and threatened to file a federal lawsuit if the policies are not corrected.

Variety has learned that the United Screen Artists Committee delivered a letter of demand Friday morning to SAG-AFTRA headquarters in Los Angeles to National Executive Director David White and President Gabrielle Carteris.
The United Screen Actors Committee is the same entity that sued the union in federal court in 2013 over the issue of the union’s alleged mis-handling of $130 million foreign royalties and residuals. That suit was dismissed in 2014.
Carteris issued a blistering response Friday: “It’s time to stop the politics. This group of people should be deeply ashamed.  After years of failed attempts to derail the success of this union through deceitful litigation, they are putting our members at risk on the eve of our most important contract negotiations. Their repeated pursuit of frivolous politics merits utter contempt. The timing of this action and its leak to a trade publication leave no doubt of their intent.”SAG-AFTRA is expected to begin contract negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers once the Writers Guild of America makes a deal. The WGA deal expires May 1; SAG-AFTRA’s deal expires June 30.
In response to the 2013 suit, the union repeatedly insisted that it had done nothing wrong and characterized that litigation as “frivolous.” It also asserted on numerous occasions in 2013 and 2014 that without its efforts, actors would not have seen any of the foreign funds nor received unclaimed residuals.

The letter of demand incorporates several of the allegations from the 2013 suit along with new accusations of misconduct by White, general counsel Duncan Crabtree-Ireland and senior advisor John Mcguire and consultant Robert Hadl. Besides Asner, the letter was signed by Alan Ruck, Clancy Brown, Eric Hughes, Steve Barr, Terrence Beasor, Tom Bower, Alex McArthur and Dennis Hayden.

Asner, who served as SAG President between 1981 and 1985, is a current member of the SAG-AFTRA national board and Brown is a former national board member. All nine except Ruck were plaintiffs in the 2013 litigation.

“For five years now, SAG-AFTRA has been redefining the method for keeping the membership informed, resorting to communications which are like press releases wherein information is managed, intentionally incomplete and misleading,” the letter began.

“With the recent release of the video SAG-AFTRA Celebrates 5 Years, this five-year practice of spin in place of transparency must be viewed in context of real events and actions prompting many questions that require immediate answers from not only yourselves but all union representatives whether elected, appointed or employed.”

According to the union’s most recent LM-2 filing with the federal government, SAG-AFTRA reported last year that  funds held in trust for others had increased by 4.5% to $171.7 million since 2015.  The 2015 report showed a 7.5% gain in the funds held for others to $164.3 million; the 2014 report listed those funds at $153.04 million, a 16% jump from 2013’s figure of $132.26 million.

But the letter of demand asserts that the union is not telling the truth about its finances in the LM-2 filings.

“Although undersigned would have hoped that the consequence of prior reviews and court decisions would have resulted in accountability from within, it appears that the exact opposite has occurred,” the missive said. “Rather than file LM-2s that fully account for residuals and royalties belonging to members and non-members alike, regression in reporting has occurred instead.”

The letter was delivered two months after SAG-AFTRA announced that it was offering members delivery of residual payments through direct deposit for the first time, replacing paper residuals checks. The performers union, which has about 160,000 members, announced Feb. 8 that it had entered into a multiyear agreement with Exactuals, a Los Angeles-based payments software company, to deliver residuals payments through direct deposit.

“What appeared to be the improper handling of One Hundred and Fifty Million Dollars of monies held in trust is now approaching at least a Billion Dollars, spread out among internal accounts, as well as such entities as Sound Exchange, AFM & SAG-AFTRA Intellectual Property Rights Distribution Fund, and a recent threat to allow a brand-new enterprise, Exactuals, to become a part of the process as well.”

The letter said that by switching to Exactuals, millions of dollars which have been invested at the direction of the union’s executive leadership and high level managers to upgrade and streamline the processing of residuals and foreign levies/royalties within SAG-AFTRA will have been “needless and profligate acts.”

The letter accuses White, who has been national executive director since 2009, of an array of financial misconduct, including charging the union for cell phones for seven different numbers;  limousine service to attend the SAG Awards; use of hotel and airline reward programs for his personal use ; donating purportedly unclaimed residuals and royalties to not-for-profit organizations while sitting on their boards; authorizing expenditure of millions of dollars for hotels in New York and Los Angeles for non-members and relatives.

Crabtree-Ireland was accused of buying tickets to events such as the Grammy Awards and to fund-raising private
parties with Union funds, submitting invoices and obtaining reimbursement without obtaining approval for such from the national board; using hotel and airline reward programs for his personal use; and having SAG-AFTRA pay for bar dues and participation bar associations, copyright, patent, intellectual property and parliamentarian organizations.

McGuire was accused of being instrumental in causing SAG-AFTRA to donate unclaimed residuals and royalties to not-for-profit organizations such as the Museum of the Moving Image, so that he and  others could in turn be honored for their “philanthropic” endeavors. He was also accused of being paid for first and business class airfare to attend conferences without advance approval from the executive board and using frequent flier mileage for trips to Ireland, Belgium, Morocco and Beijing.

Hadl is accused in the letter of not filing reports with the Department of Labor for services purportedly rendered to SAG-AFTRA and for claiming he is “legal counsel” to SAG-AFTRA, although not licensed to practice law. He was also accused of charging for first class airfare and upgraded lodging to attend conferences while billing other unions and the Motion Picture Association of America for the same trips.

The letter also accused SAG-AFTRA of purchasing a Tennessee building it already owned, paying itself $824,800 in 2014 and failing to report the transaction in federal filings.

The 10-page letter also said that the SAG National Board of Directors — which is scheduled to meet Saturday and Sunday — would have until June 5 to respond if a lawsuit is to be averted.

“Prefatory to commencing a federal lawsuit to address breaches of fiduciary duties, we are compelled to give the National Executive Board an opportunity to consider the breaches which have taken place and to timely redress same, including by demanding that the accused officials and high level executives reimburse the Union, forthwith,” it warned. “Absent doing so, an action seeking same will in fact be filed.

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Yikes!  If true, where the hell do the above mentioned think they are…The White House?
Arl
The Ol’ SAG Watchdog
*Headline Photo selected by the Watchdog

Ed Asner Running for SAG-AFTRA National Board!

 

 (EXCLUSIVE)

Film Reporter@Variety_DMcNary

Three decades after serving as president of the Screen Actors Guild, Ed Asner is seeking a SAG-AFTRA national board seat as part of the Membership First slate, Variety has learned exclusively.“I still have hopes of making the union more viable,” Asner told Variety. “I don’t think we present a strong enough image.”Asner said he became involved as a candidate for several reasons: the slow pace of residual payments; the lack of member engagement in seeking contract improvements; and the failure to merge the separate SAG and AFTRA health and pension plans — a key reason given to members in the successful campaign for the 2012 merger of SAG and AFTRA.“We are too willing to let transgressions slide by,” Asner said.

SAG-AFTRA national executive director David White disclosed last month that progress has been made in merging the plans, but gave no timetable for the implementation.

Asner will be part of the slate for the self-styled progressives of Membership First, headed by “Home Improvement” star Patricia Richardson, who is challenging incumbent Ken Howard for the presidency. SAG-AFTRA has not yet disclosed the list of eligible candidates for the upcoming contest.

Election ballots will be mailed to members who are paid up on dues on July 21 and tabulated on Aug. 20. Turnout in the 2013 election — the first for the merged SAG-AFTRA — was about 20.5%, with ballots mailed to 139,967 eligible voters.

Howard, 71, has headed SAG-AFTRA since it was created three years ago and easily defeated Esai Morales — who headed the Membership First slate — and two other challengers in 2013. Howard was first elected as 25th and final SAG president, positioning himself as a moderate and pragmatist, in 2009 and re-elected in 2011 on a  platform advocating the merger of SAG and AFTRA, which was overwhelmingly approved by members despite active opposition from Membership First.

Asner served as the 18th SAG president for two terms from 1981 to 1985, joining a list of notables that included Eddie Cantor, James Cagney, Ronald Reagan and Charlton Heston.

During his time in office, he was criticized for making political statements about U.S. involvement in El Salvador, which may have led to CBS cancelling the series “Lou Grant.” Asner received SAG’s Life Achievement Award in 2002, two years after winning the guild’s Ralph Morgan Award for service to the guild.

In 2013, Asner served as the lead plaintiff in a lawsuit against SAG-AFTRA alleging extensive mishandling of $130 million in unpaid residuals and foreign royalties. The suit was dismissed in early 2014 but the federal judge in the case indicated that the plaintiffs could file again.

Asner has won seven Emmy Awards for performing — more than any other male actor. He received five of the awards for the role of Lou Grant.

Asner, 85, has continued performing. He will appear Saturday at the Malibu Playhouse in a one-man show “A Man and His Prostrate,” written and directed by Ed Weinberger.

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I’m proud to belong to the same union as the great Ed Asner!!!
Arl
The Ol’ SAG Watchdog
*Photo selected by Watchdog

SAG-AFTRA Funds Held in Trust Jump 16% to $153 Million!!

 

July 30, 2014 | 07:08PM PT

Film Reporter @Variety_DMcNary

SAG-AFTRA’s funds held in trust have jumped by 16% to $153 million since last year, according to the union’s latest filing with the federal government.

Those funds have been at the center of a long-running dispute, dating back to a 2007 suit filed by Ken Osmond (“Leave It to Beaver) over how foreign royalties and residuals are handled by the union.

The disclosure came in Tuesday’s filing of SAG-AFTRA’s LM-2 report with he U.S. Department of Labor for the fiscal year ended April 30, which listed that the “Funds Held in Trust for Others” category at $153.04 million. The previous year’s figure was $132.26 million.

SAG-AFTRA had no immediate response to an inquiry to explain the increase.

In May, 2013, Ed Asner and 15 other union members filed suit, alleging SAG-AFTRA has improperly withheld funds and stonewalled requests for information about the money held in trust by the union — including domestic residuals and foreign royalties collected by the union through foreign collecting societies without authorization or knowledge of union members.

The suit also alleged that the union has cashed residuals checks and then claimed an inability to locate the actors to whom it owes money. A federal judge dismissed the suit in January, finding the union had been sufficiently cooperative in providing access to its materials — but also indicated that the plaintiffs would be able to re-visit the issue.

Eric Hughes, one of the plaintiffs in the Asner suit, said Wednesday in response to the new LM2 report: “SAG-AFTRA not only continues to violate the filing requirements imposed by federal law by failing to properly report all financial receipts but the sum of monies due but not delivered to members stunningly increases. The records the union has given us to review are not the records necessary to verify, explain or clarify its reporting.”

Osmond settled his case in 2011 and SAG and AFTRA merged in March, 2012. SAG’s fiscal 2012 report listed $100.48 million for the same item while the AFTRA LM2 national report listed a total of $11 million including $7.53 million of funds due to members that the union could not locate.

None of the four LM2 reports broke down the funds further.

When asked about the fund increase last year, SAG-AFTRA General Counsel Duncan Crabtree-Ireland said that most of the funds are deposits by producers — but did not disclose specific numbers.

“The majority of funds held in trust relate to production security deposits and residuals reserves – funds that will be returned to producers unless they breach their obligations under SAG-AFTRA collective bargaining agreements,” he said at the time. “The amount of these funds held fluctuates greatly depending on production activity and production budgets. Only a very small portion of these funds relate to foreign royalties, and those funds are only held temporarily while they are allocated and distributed.”
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“SAG-AFTRA had no immediate response to an inquiry to explain the increase.”  Boy there’s a first!

Arl

The Ol’ SAG Watchdog

*Photo selected by Watchdog

Two SAG-AFTRA Stories: One The ‘Real’ Deal! The Other ‘Moving!’

Judge Cancels Hearing in Ed Asner’s Case Against SAG-AFTRA

December 23, 2013 | 06:03PM PT

Hearing had been set for Jan. 6

Film Reporter @Variety_DMcNary

A federal judge has cancelled a Jan. 6 hearing on motions by SAG-AFTRA to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Ed Asner and 15 other plaintiffs over alleged mishandling of $132 million in residuals and foreign royalties. U.S. District Court Judge Manuel Real said in a filing Monday that the union’s dismissal motions are suitable for a decision “without the need for oral argument.” Real gave no indication of how or when he will rule, adding without elaboration, “The Court will issue its ruling on the matter in due course.” The original suit was filed on May 24. Real narrowed the issues on Oct. 7, allowing the suit to include the issue of residuals and three of the 16 plaintiffs to proceed with their claims on unpaid foreign royalties. The union filed the 18-page motion on Nov. 20, asserting that the plaintiffs’ claims under state law should be tossed because they are “completely preempted by federal labor law” and that the plaintiffs “do not have the authority to sue on behalf of anyone other than themselves.” The plaintiffs responded on Dec. 16, portraying the union as reckless in how it handles funds that it’s supposed to distribute to performers.

“SAG-AFTRA simply does not record what is earned but it willy-nilly converts checks as it sees fit, by either endorsing checks made out to performers and placing same into its purported Trust Account, or by holding onto performers checks for months if not years on end to the ongoing detriment of its members who depend on these earnings to live,” the plaintiffs said.

The union has repeatedly insisted that it’s done nothing wrong and has called the suit “frivolous.”

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SAG-AFTRA Moves to One New York office to open Jan. 6

Film Reporter   @Variety_DMcNary  12/20/2013

SAG-AFTRA is moving its New York local office to Broadway, departing from their two Madison Avenue offices.

The two offices, which housed separate SAG and AFTRA operations prior to the March 2012 merger, are closing Dec. 20. The new office will reopen Jan. 6 at One Lincoln Plaza, 1900 Broadway.

“Merger brought SAG-AFTRA together, and this beautiful new office space brings all of our operations and member services under one roof,” said New York Local president Mike Hodge.

The New York Local is the union’s second largest after Hollywood and reps about 20% of SAG-AFTRA’s 160,000 members.

Staff in New York will not be available until the new office opens, but the national headquarters office in Los Angeles will be available for member needs.

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A big  thank  you to Variety’s Dave McNary for keeping us  so well informed all year long! 

Arl 

The Ol’ SAG Watchdog

*Photo selected by Watchdog

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