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(Photos, Lea Thompson and Sally Kirkland rally while Carlos Granda of ABC News reports; SAG president Alan Rosenberg with actress and former SAG VP Anne Marie Johnson; Keith Carradine speaking at rally; SAG’s exec director Doug Allen; and board member Justine Bateman. All except Carradine photo by Jim Stevenson.)
LAPD unofficially estimated the SAG Solidarity Rally crowd at 550. SAG leaders Rosenberg and Doug Allen gave impassioned speeches explaining that they want to negotiate a fair deal for actors and a cohesive pay grid on New Media. Rosenberg began his remarks by reminding the rally that 75 years ago at the height of the depression the studios instituted a 50% pay cut for actors, and the actors responded by founding the Screen Actors Guild on June 30, 1933 — almost exactly 75 years ago. Also taking the podium was actor Keith Carradine. In the crowd could be seen former SAG prez Ed Asner, David Arquette, William Mapother, Joe Bologna, Renee Taylor, Justine Bateman, David Clennon, Scott Wilson, Lisa Ann Walter, Kate Flannery, Willie Garson, Joely Fisher, David Marciano, Erica Gimpel, Michael Dorn, Marg Helgenberger and more. WGA leaders Patrick Verrone and Dave Young also spoke and urged SAG to improve upon the writers’ terms and “move the ball down the field.” Other WGA members spotted were Joss Whedon, Dianne Burroughs, Joey Gutteriez, Alan Sereboff, Jill Kushner. 
As expected, the subject of the AFTRA-AMPTP deal came up. Hundreds of assembled SAG/AFTRA dual-card holders chanted “Vote no! Vote no!” when the subject of the current AFTRA contract proposal came up. One of their signs read, “Vote no on AFTRA’s ‘give away’ contract! Send them back to get a better one!” As one SAG board member attending told me. ”They understood that a ‘yes’ vote on that proposal would have us agreeing to sub-par conditions considering what SAG can potentially achieve for us. Really, I think you can better rates by standing out in front of Home Depot.”
Some members of the SAG negotiating committee from regional branches said they wouldn’t attend the rally in Los Angeles because they saw it as an action to “thwart” the ratification of the AFTRA contract vote. There has been a huge schism between SAG NY vs LA for months now. NY division president Sam Freed said in a statement: “This is one of a series of miscalculations by Membership First that jeopardizes our negotiations and the interests of the membership. There is absolutely no evidence that this effort to defeat the AFTRA contract will help us. It will only serve to create more uncertainty in a community that is desperate to get back to work. It is an irresponsible embarrassment.” Negotiating committee co-chair Mike Pniewski echoed: “We cannot support anything which jeopardizes our negotiations at this very sensitive time and that is just what this ill advised action does. There’s simply too much at stake to engage in such a divisive initiative.”
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Looking forward to Hollywood Strike 2: Electric Boogaloo – coming soon to a theater near you. Oh wait there won’t be actors
Agreed on the home depot comment being moronic. Unlike you bigshots, most of us peons in the world don’t work under any contract or for any union. We get paid based on what are talents are worth in the marketplace (what a novel concept).
Gee wiz, do you think the AMPTP is laughing now? We played right into their hands.
A strike at this juncture would be ridiculous and anyone who actually works knows that.
The fact that SAG and AFTRA leadership couldn’t figure out a way to work together during this negotiation is shameful. Who is to blame for that? I’ve got to put it on SAG. They are more powerful. And from what I’ve heard they treated the AFTRA leadership as an annoyance rather than an ally.
Militant leadership is not what we need. Prudent leadership is what we need. I can’t wait till we can vote to change the guard because this incendiary rhetoric aint helping anybody.
i am what many would call an A-list actor. Firstly, i wanted to be there at the rally yesterday for what is was publicized to be–a support rally for the sag negotiating team. It was never advertised as an anti-aftra rally, and honestly, having read the aftra deal, (i am a dual member) i feel the deal is so bad for working actors that i would never vote to ratify it. The offer from SAG to negotiate, in essence, for a better deal for all of us, in both unions, just seems smart, and possibly, a major gain for aftra members. why anyone would chose to see it any other way–as a divisive idea–is beyond me. For the record, i feel the stripping of actors rights to approve clips, and be paid a per use fee, is a HUGE deal. And i would be on the frontlines picketing if a strike is the only way to secure what has been ours for 50 years.
To the cowardly cynic who hides behind the name “Uh, Nikki”:
I know most of the men and women who staff the Screen Actors Guild.
Not one of them appears in the photos shown in this article.
Think about it: If you were an S.A.G. staff member, would you be STUPID enough to pose for a photo with actors, where you could be identified as a non-actor, and thus compromise the integrity of your union??
Answer: YOU might be stupid enough, but our staff is hired at a higher threshhold of intelligence.
When you enter your pro-AMPTP comments on this site, remember to fact-check and THINK first.
Dave Clennon
DOn’t act like a tough guy when you accept scraps as a meal. The Actors should get 20 times as much as they do and you fools think that 1 penny means something. They are nowhere without you. Hang tight. I can’t go throught this again in four years when they try to screw us again. Start negotiating side deals and put htem to pasture. WORK NOW. Lie the writers. grow the internet along with a pair of balls
If the WGA was serious at having leverage then, no matter how difficult it was to do, they should’ve found common cause with the DGA years before…after all the schedule of negotiations was no secret to anyone. But their egos got in the way and the AMPTP wisely took advantage of the situation. So the only recourse was the weakest one of all…to strike.
But that lack of wisdom pales in comparison to this; for SAG to not have found common cause with a union that represents the SAME PEOPLE, and to allow the AMPTP to again take advantage of the schism…this is laughable…this is consummate ego, pathological self-obsession. Word to SAG members: if your union can can’t come to agreement with another union repping the same people, how on earth do they have the skills to negotiate with the AMPTP?
I was there. But I didn’t need to go to a rally to know the AFTRA contract is lousy. I don’t need to be told to vote no on it. It’s not worthy of a professional and I would vote no on it even if SAG told me to vote yes. If it passes, I’m not working it. Why bother?
The SAG staffers had T-shirts on that said SAG STAFF. There were about 550 people there, I would guess, at the highest point. The crowd swelled and diminished, so it depended on if you were there at the beginning, middle or end. Plenty of working actors. Working actors are not all celebrities.
Lots of WGA. I don’t know how many. Thanks for coming, guys.
Oh and by the way, I don’t remember anyone official mentioning a strike. Sure, we need that solidarity so we can threaten a strike and mean it if we have to. But nobody wants it. Come on.
I’m just a writer, okay, so I’m not supposed to know about grownup stuff like budgets and net and rolling breaks. But what I can’t figure out — except if I’m writing about sharecropping or the Gilded Age or mill workers or child labor — is how come everybody in the film and TV industry seems to be earning a good living except the people who actually do the hard work and make the shows?
You may not see sag staff in the pictures here, but I saw at least a dozen in the NBC footage on the net, including Doug Allen’s executive assistant. Who knows how many on the B-roll.
What’s interesting is that those who pooh-pooh the numbers at the rally and cry that its only the unemployed who are at the rally and that working writers and actors weren’t there because they disagree with the leadership and chose not to attend.
Thing is that if you are working right now, you can’t attend a rally during the day, because, duh, you are working and they don’t let you off work to go attend a rally against them. But things aren’t back to normal and a lot of people who normally do work in this industry, or at least as normally as anyone who isn’t a ‘star’ works and who works in the industry in other jobs in between the gigs we really want… aren’t back to work yet from the other strike. This I do not blame on the WGA or SAG, but the studios who are trying to starve us all into submission.
Yes, I was there with my brothers and sisters. If I had been working, I wouldn’t have been able to do it, because no show (I work TV) or studio (my inbetween employment) would give me time off to attend a rally against them. But I resent the inference that because I was not working yesterday and able to attend that that somehow means I’m chronically unemployed or unemployable and just there to ruin the lives of those of you who were working whatever job you have. Tomorrow it could be you who is unemployed — even if it is only a short time between gigs.
Thank you Santayana. The BTL’s got to get some love.
AFTRA President Roberta Reardon took to the air today, appearing on KPPC’s Patt Morrison show to defend AFTRA’s proposed contract. Morrison also interviewed SAG President Alan Rosenberg on tape prior to the live broadcast.
I would like to focus on what Ms. Reardon said about the New Media provisions of the contract. She claimed that AFTRA made significant gains in New Media.
In defending the $15/300/500k New Media exemption provisions of the proposed AFTRA contract, she said – and I’m paraphrasing here, as I just heard it live and did not write it down (go to KPPC for archived audio) – that she doesn’t expect the employers to fund a lot of low-budget New Media productions with strictly non-union actors. In other words, she dismissed our concerns are irrelevant.
Here is the question she was not asked. If the employers aren’t interested in directly producing low-budget New Media projects with 100% non-union talent, why did they push so hard to put that provision in this proposed contract?
More generally, as Ms. Reardon is so quick to play the union card, why would she and the AFTRA negotiators allow ANY signatory employer to employ ANY non-union principal actor on ANY part of the contract? Why would she sanction this most basic violation of good unionism?
I hasten to add this is not about Ms. Reardon personally in any way, shape, or form. My only concerns relate to her actions as president of AFTRA. As president of AFTRA, IMHO, Ms. Reardon did not do a good job defending the New Media provisions of the deal, but then it’s an impossible job, as some of those provisions are clearly indefensible.
For their own sakes and the sake of their own union, AFTRA members need to vote this deal down and send their negotiators back to the table with a clear mandate for a deal that doesn’t eviscerate the rights of actors and the future of their union.
to F AMPTP:
uh…don’t want to point out the obvious…but it’s not just the AMPTP that gets hurt by a strike…everyone, writers, caterers, directors, below the line, designers, artisans, craftsmen, and…you guessed it, ACTORS.
You know I would love to see how much support is shown when the below the line unions try to negotiate their deal. You know the people all around the writers and actors that BREAK THEIR BACK so the show goes on… oh thats right they will get NO SUPPORT from the high dollar players.
Could not agree more with those critical of SAG leadership at this time. The fact that this industry, and those working in it, can be so damaged by this group of idiots is unbelievable. They are beyond rationality, and have moved directly to whipping up mobs, meglomania, and legal bullying of those who dare have a differing view. And I would bet they’re being highly influenced by those shady labor lawyers who are loving all the billing hours. Rosenberg looks like he thinks he’s playing the role of his career, the firey labor leader who stood up to the evil suits.
I cannot believe that the poster calling him/herself “F AMPTP” is actually representative of the membership of the Screen Actors Guild. Trying to throw scare tactics at people and angrily intoning “Be afraid. Be very afraid” is an unfortunate choice. I can completely understand the members of a guild seeking a good and fair contract. I cannot understand threats from anonymous parties.
In this, I think I am in agreement with David Clennon. I may disagree with his positions on issues, but I don’t find him to be making incoherent statements like that one. I empathize with his wish for all the unions and guilds to bargain at the same time and thus extract a decent and workable contract. I don’t know that I will see that happen in my lifetime, but I would be happy if it did. (And David, just to show you I am not an anonymous crank, you may actually remember working with me. I helped out the AD staff on “The Agency” in the fall of 02, specifically filling in for a full week when one of the regular ADs sprained her ankle on location.)
I can’t speak for “high dollar players”, but I can speak for me. I walked the picket line for the WGA, and if a BTL union has their backs put to the wall by the moguls, I will walk with you too. And I know I am not alone.
Agree with mheister: I walked the WGA line, and if the BTLers need my support, I’ll be out there beside them. And there are plenty of us WGAers who feel that way and will walk the walk.
I respect and fully support SAG’s effort to get a contract that is a good template for other actor’s unions and aid’s in securing the futures of performing artists.
I’m not currently a SAG member but I see SAG as where I eventually would like to be because it will mean that I’ve (hopefully) earned some decent credits. Not to say that SAG is necessairly the be all and the end all for actors in this global business, but I have to say that I will be happy when I get there to know that after years of hussling my ass off paying for exorbitant acting schools, monthly classes at 300-500 bucks a pop, workshops, paying for cabs/gas for auditions, taped / edited auditions at my agents request, multiple sets of headshots at $500 (not including the additional cost of reproductions that must be kept on had, the memberships, dues, advertising fees, keeping my hair looking decent, the working out, the dance / yoga classes, and the crappy paying day job that I have to keep happy simultaneously – oh and of course the agency fees, etc. all to maintain what the industry expects of you – that after all that, it’ll be really great to finally get there and rest assured that my integrity won’t be comprimised with bullshit including but not limited to product integration that I wouldn’t see a dime of!?!? Add supported online streaming where I don’t get shit? That’s effing bullshit! Actors are taken advantage of enough as it is but I’ll be dammned if when I finally get to where I want to go only to have my likeness comprimised in such a way! Especially when they’re all receiving sick amounts of money for it, but I’m not thrown a bone? Eff that. It’ll be a sad day if that’s what becomes industry standard of a performer’s future.
“If you want the public sympathy on this, don’t show well known actors. It’s gonna work against you not for you.
Honestly, all this bickering back and forth is not helping anything. It’s really hurting you all.
Comment by TV Fan — June 9, 2008 @ 9:41 pm”
I am a member of the general public and I stand with SAG supporting them 100%. Bring out the well knowns and I will still stand beside SAG. As a matter of fact, it would be a honor to stand beside Justine, Marg H, M Heister and D Clennen.
And if there was some advance planning and I knew they would be there, I would be just as honored to stand beside every single SAG member from The Unit and the other shows I watch.
Just thought I would throw my one cent into this discussion. SAG: I wish I could have been there with you!
Question have the regional SAG members hurt themselves for attending the ralley? I don’t blame you actors who go on strike. U deserve as much of the internet pie,dvd royalites and other new media. Producers and some film companies should hog it all.
As someone who worked in a film myself as an extra I know what hard work on set means. So I’m with you when you strike. Studio execs should feel the heat from you sag working members too. Just my opioin.
“after years of hussling my ass off paying for exorbitant acting schools, monthly classes at 300-500 bucks a pop, workshops, paying for cabs/gas for auditions, taped / edited auditions at my agents request, multiple sets of headshots at $500 (not including the additional cost of reproductions that must be kept on had, the memberships, dues, advertising fees, keeping my hair looking decent, the working out, the dance / yoga classes”
LOL, you’ve been doing this for “years” and still aren’t a SAG member? Maybe it’s time to consider a new line of work…
And all of you claiming you’d walk with BTL’ers are full of it, and you know it. I’m going to laugh when the SAG leaders are finally forced to follow up on their threats and ask for a strike vote, and have it rejected, big-time!
Here’s the thing that irks me most about “my” AFTRA leadership–when SAG goads them they react defensively, which only affirms the preception that AFTRA knows they shortchanged us. AFTRA also continues to point out all the gains they made in this contract,yet what would be more telling would be if they told us what the AMPTP gave up. From what I can tell, they gave up nothing and gave AFTRA next to nothing. That’s not a partnership that’s letting the bully take your lunch money.
Unlike TV fan I am firmly convinced that it would not hurt an A lister or some of the more well-known actors to get out there and stand up to the AMPTP. The A list changes constantly and just as soon as you make it there you can be knocked off of it.
A listers all start in the rank and file pack of actors and many of them finish their careers there. So a little esprit de corps couldn’t hurt the union efforts overall. Because the deals sought are really for the benefit of the rank and file and not just those who could go it alone. And just because you don’t think you need the union today, that’s no guarantee you won’t need the union tomorrow.
To be a real star you not only need to shine for the audience you need to be an example for your fellow thespians.
And for the record I support all the entertainment unions and their members. Because without every member of a production team, good films and TV shows just don’t happen.
VDOVault
Founder of Why We Watch
http://community.livejournal.com/whywewatchljcom
Man so many of us called this months ago during the WGA strike… the WGA and DGA screwed ALL of you… all they had to do was keep working under the old contract until now and negotiating… then everyone could have gone on strike together… but no.. the WGA just had to go it alone, and now becaue of the previous strike most don’t want to strike again.
I have mixed feelings on the subject. On the one hand I know you guys are getting screwed by the AMPTP and deserve the gains you are asking for… on the other hand, look at the state of the business. TV now considered keeping your ratings even an increase. Movie viewership is down year to year. The producers can use this to bolster their case, and to a certain extent they have a point… on the other hand they’re still making a lot of money.
Most people would be quite happy to make $1500/day or work in your positions and under your contracts. Most people in this country as I said before don’t belong to a union or work under a contract (like me). So the perception to average people can be that you’re being greedy when that isn’t necessarily the case.
Oh I’m not in the business to know but was here daily during the WGA strike… and I want to see if you guys are going to support the BTLers as well when it’s their turn… because it doesn’t seem like they get a lot of support from you guys either. Are you going to support them striking after a possible second strike for sag??? Or are you going to say ‘no we’ve had two strikes we can’t do this again!’ after you’ve got your deal in place. We’ll see.