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It’s not even August. And SAG is still in the middle of its contract negotiations with Big Media. But already actors are coming forward to run for office in the September 18th election. (Then again, there’s never a SAG vote without controversy.) But no, it’s not too early. Because the nominating period closes tomorrow! Then SAG releases the official list of candidates on August 5th once the Election Committees have confirmed candidate eligibility. So today I received a statement from 31 SAG members billing themselves as “Hollywood stars” (in the subject line of the email they sent out) who say they’re “alarmed by growing divisiveness” within their guild and declared themselves SAG Board candidates seeking leadership change on a “Unite For Strength” slate. (Many, if not all, were on board for the “Affected Member” attempt to limit SAG contract voting to just “working” actors which SAG’s current board sent back to committee.) Here’s the “Unite For Strength” statement:
Aiming to put the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) on a path toward greater unity with sister union the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), a group of 31 actors announced today that they will run in upcoming elections for seats on the SAG Board of Directors. Organized under the banner “Unite for Strength,” the group is seeking to win a majority of the national board seats allotted to Hollywood branch members. If successful, Unite for Strength would end control of the board by the “Membership First” faction, which has long maintained a hostile stance toward AFTRA.
“With the immense challenges actors face today, we need all the strength we can muster. And that means electing union leadership that is committed to uniting actors to fight for our common future,” said Ned Vaughn, a leader of the group. “We can no longer afford leaders who sow division.”
“As our current predicament makes clear, actors lose out when we face off as separate, warring camps against the media conglomerates in contract negotiations,” said Adam Arkin. “I’m concerned for future negotiations if we don’t change the leadership that has brought us to this point.”
In announcing their campaign, Unite for Strength faulted current and past board members associated with Membership First for stoking the debilitating hostility between SAG and AFTRA by:
· Threatening to terminate joint negation of the TV/Theatrical contract. (They later rescinded a planned referendum after a storm of internal criticism that doing so would weaken SAG at the bargaining table.)
· Waging a campaign of threats and insults against AFTRA. This included one Membership First-affiliated board member calling AFTRA “a scumbag union.”
· Waging a senseless, futile (and costly) campaign to defeat the contract AFTRA negotiated with the AMPTP.
· Scuttling two separate attempts (1998 & 2003) to strengthen actors’ long-term position at the bargaining table by merging SAG and AFTRA.“If we’re elected, we’ll end the senseless war against AFTRA and work to create a united front of actors to fight for more working opportunities and better jobs. We believe that will ultimately require merging the two unions, and that’s a goal we’re all pledged to pursue,” said Vaughn.
The candidates running on the Unite for Strength slate are:
Adam Arkin
Michelle Allsopp
Edoardo Ballerini
Bob Bergen
Amy Brenneman
L. Scott Caldwell
Gabrielle Carteris
William Charlton
Assaf Cohen
Ashley Crow
Tim DeKay
Fred Fein
Googy Gress
Dulé Hill
Ken Howard
Clyde Kusatsu
Matt Letscher
John Carroll Lynch
Anthony Molinari
Pamela Reed
Doug Savant
Bill Smitrovich
Richard Speight, Jr.
Mandy Steckelberg
Keith Szarabajka
Steve Tom
Stacey Travis
Ned Vaughn
Tom Verica
Marcia Wallace
Kate Walsh
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Peter Coyote should be drafted to run for SAG President.
Well, I can see no one even wants to comment about this one.
Talk about divisive.
Right into the AMPTPs hands. The beginning of the end.
They’ve got my vote. The “Membership First – Members LAST” folks have screwed things up for long enough. I hope enough actors see through their lies and distortions to throw them out on their collective rear ends.
They’re for unity, merger, ending the war with AFTRA and returning sanity to SAG.
Thank goodness! An alternative to dumb and dumber.
WHat a bunch of Losers
Yeah!!!! Smart people just walked into the room!!!
This is brilliant! It’s time to stand up to the bullies and deal with the real issues an adult union should be dealing with like…oh yes a contract!
I recognize eight names on this so-called “Stars” list and I can find most of the others on IMDB.
When the actors who appear on the covers of national magazines speak up, then I think SAG members will listen.
I fully endorse them.
First:
“Membership First” did not “scuttle” the 2 attempts to merge with AFTRA. That is a lie. At the time, “Membership First” was a small group of actors who, with little money, came out against merger as not in SAG’s long term interest. Against a multi-million dollar campaign waged with SAG members dues money to force merger down SAG’s throat, the MEMBERSHIP, not “Membership First,” voted down merger. TWICE. I am sick of hearing “well, they only won by 2%, blah, blah, blah” – this was a HUGE push by the PRESIDENT of SAG, with unprecedented use of members dues money, and, not once, but TWICE, the MEMBERSHIP of SAG listened to the debate, and ACCORDING TO SAG RULES, voted the measure down. This portrayal of Membership First as somehow tampering with the vote or otherwise using nefarious means to win the day is an lie, plain and simple.
The current “concerns” of the group calling itself “United For Strength” are to:
1.Deprive the vote to ALL SAG members. We know best, we’re “Hollywood stars” (did I READ that right?!) according to their own words to Nikki, and they believe only actors who meet what they consider an acceptable criteria should be able to vote. This comes out of their belief that the merger votes were undone by SAG members whose opinions and votes shouldn’t matter. I can’t think of anything more undemocratic and wrong than that point of view. How about only “working Americans” get to vote for President? How about only “wealthy white landowners?” You see where this goes. It is both ignorant of the tenets of democracy and arrogant in the extreme.
2. They actually have the gall to portray the current leadership of SAG as the bad guy in the AFTRA feud, when Roberta Reardon, the President of AFTRA, LIED to Alan Rosenberg, the President of SAG, when she assured Alan in April that she would “bargain together with SAG” as AFTRA had done for the past 28 years. It’s one thing to suggest there was condescension from one group to another, it’s entirely different to LIE, one President, Roberta Reardon of AFTRA, to another, Alan Rosenberg of SAG, and then run into the willing arms of the AMPTP, who were salivating for just such an incredible lack of judgment, giving them a perfect opportunity to use a powerful tactic AFTRA NEVER should have allowed the AMPTP to have: “divide and conquer.” SAG’s current predicament was CAUSED by AFTRA – not the other way around. To portray it as somehow SAG’s fault is, again, a LIE.
3. I assume that the “Unite for Strength” group finds the current SAG leaderships contract proposals too “hard line.” They want to be more accommodating of the AMPTP.
What are SAG’s proposals that are so “hard line?” Let’s see:
a. keep force majeure a collective right as we’ve always had, not an individual one, as the AMPTP now demands.
b. Protect the SAG actor from a suit approaching them on set and saying “we’d like you to wear this Microsoft T-shirt through the whole movie for no apparent reason, so we get the 7 million dollars Microsoft is contributing to the budget of this film. No? Gee, that’s too bad. You’re fired.” Which is EXACTLY what the language the AMPTP’s current offer allows a producer to do. The actor needs to have explicit language protecting them from that scenario, as well as the situation many would find themselves in: “I can’t do a different computer commercial for a long, long time if I agree to that, and I make the majority of my living from commercials.”
c. Somehow it’s a “nonstarter” and, I assume “United For Strength is o.k. with it, that, a nearly 30 year (!?) old JOKE of a contract provision, giving all of 12 cents to be split up among, say, 50 actors on a film for the DVD sales, is not worth haggling over. “Just give it to them!” “It’s ‘the template.’ ” “DVD is dying out anyway!”
Besides the gutless quality of such concessions, did anyone see Monday’s headline in Variety? “10 Billion in DVD sales.” See for yourself. But, we don’t want to be too demanding, fellow sheep, we might make the billionaires upset. Take the 12 cents and shut up about it. Just like we have for 30 YEARS.
d. And, of course, the big kahuna: “new media.” I’m assuming “United For Strength,” these proud “Hollywood Stars” (I just threw up in my mouth) don’t mind a HUGE non-union space for the AMPTP to exploit for their financial gain, which will be created under the current offer being shoved down SAG’S throat. You don’t agree? Then YOU CAN’T READ. The current cost of a minute of new content for the internet, according to the latest research? – $2,000.
The AMPTP’s offer? Under $15,000 a minute, $450,000 a series, or $300,000, whichever is lowest, you can create non-union, original content for the internet, which will go to an emerging WAVE of non-union actors, perfectly happy to be paid practically nothing in salary to play a role, and then NOT receive ANY residuals, EVER. No P&H. No workplace protections. Nothing. “Free windows” of 12 to 24 days, during which the suits can extract a good deal (in some cases a great deal) of their profit. You make UNION content that ORIGINATES on, say NBC.com? You get NO RESIDUALS. EVER. So, a huge potential non-union space for the AMPTP to exploit, AND NO RESIDUALS, for all practical purposes, even if it’s a UNION show, as long as it originates on the internet. Too “radical” to not be thrilled with that, “United For Strength?”
e. Finally, the dangerously naive assumption that, if we establish these precedents, most importantly in new media, that the AMPTP will “revisit” them, after the “sunset clause” expires (AFTRA contract). This notion that the suits are our friends? Not our adversaries, who are looking for every advantage over the unions, especially SAG, as we find ourselves already in the new media world? Ask yourselves, “United For Strength” – why won’t the AMPTP agree NOW to a percentage deal on new media, from first airing, and from first dollar? It protects them, and it protects SAG. They make 10 billion dollars in the next 3 years? SAG gets X %. They make 10 Bucks in the next three years? SAG STILL makes X %. You wanna know why they won’t agree to that entirely fair and reasonable solution? BECAUSE THEY WANT TO BREAK THE UNION YOU FUCKING MORONS. Do you REALLY think, are you REALLY stupid enough, after what they did to us on DVD, which cost us literally HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS, to believe the AMPTP will come back and renegotiate, once they have all the creative unions sewed up in this new media precedent?
Please. Give SAG leadership the authorization to strike. Support the Membership First agenda. Only REAL “STRENGTH” works with the AMPTP. Be smart SAG. We may not have to strike, but we better have the option, or the AMPTP will not budge.
Mr. Vaughn – With all do respect, coming out while we’re in the middle of negotiations and denouncing that group that’s negotiating, so you can get elected – that HURTS Actors! If you really care about Actors and your Union, you would rally around the current President in this difficult time and lend your support – not show the AMPTP that we are divide.
Actors only lose when we take a BAD deal!
Stand united SAG Members!
Googy Gress and Assaf Cohen are on board? Count me in!
If this group of talented actors were truly interested in seeing SAG get the very best deal it can, their statement would have begun with full and unwavering support for the current elected leadership in our ongoing negotiations. As it is, their timing appears to be an effort to undermine current leadership, which doesn’t help us get the best deal.
Mr. Arkin, Ms. Brenneman, and the rest of this group should draw a lesson from how Senator Obama is handling the Iraq situation vis a vis the party in power. The senator is just as quick to support the troops as he is to criticize the current commander-in-chief’s policies. In fact, Obama has been in front of the current administration on a number of issues. A few months ago his opponents in both parties criticized him for stating that he would move on actionable intelligence about Al Queda activities in Pakistan if the Pakistanis could not. What’s happened since? President Bush has done just that.
Supporting the troops in the context of SAG means expressing solidarity with your fellow actors in getting the best deal while at the same time explaining how you’d do things better next time. It also can mean being in front of the current leadership.
Mr. Arkin, Ms. Brenneman, the other 29 on this list – if you have suggestions for President Rosenberg as to how he may more successfully conclude the current negotiations with the AMPTP and not take a lousy rotten deal like AFTRA signed, I’m sure he’s all ears. If you have ideas as to how to go about keeping AFTRA from poaching shows that should be SAG shows by offering the production companies sweetheart deals on wages, residuals, and working conditions at the expense of the actors, please share these ideas with all of us. We need your energy, your wisdom, your expertise.
But please, bring positive suggestions to move things forward to better protect actors. Simply lobbing brickbats at the current elected SAG leadership only helps the AMPTP.
shit. should i know who any of these people are?
Good lord. While I strongly support the current SAG leadership (despite missteps), today I also signed all of the above-referenced members’ petitions to be -on- the ballot — so at least their ballot presentations could be heard.
If this thread is any indication, and the “unite for strength” campaign leads do the opposite of “uniting” (i.e., a new infighting bashfest), for what absolutely little it’s worth, I’ll be feeling awfully naive in retrospect.
I can only hope that from here on out we (SAG) come across as reasonably intelligent peops at least capable of intelligent, reasoned debate of alternative views within our own ranks.
I sure hope that regardless of how many of the candidates win, that the methods of the “unite” peops support their chosen moniker.
Oddly, none of these people are the ones I’ve talked to about running for the SAG board. If people would unite behind Membership First, AFTRA that lowcut, poor excuse for an actors union, would be out of business in a NY minute. And rightfully so.
Unite for Strength is the divisive one here–they’re siding with AFTRA to under their own union. SAG members, every working and non-working actor should understand that the if Unite for Strength wins seats on the Board, that come next contract time they won’t have a voice for their own career.
The WGA made this mistake, too. It was short sighted for them and it’s not a good idea now. Strength comes in numbers, not in a few voices crying in the dark and settling for cheap wages. SAG has worked hard to make its voice heard throughout the years, negotiating to make itself the strongest guild in town. Every contract since the dawn of SAG has improved working conditions and increased benefits for its actors? Why step backward? Why lose what others have fought so hard to gain? Why give back control to the very forces that want to eliminate you as a union? Because if Unite for Strength wins control of the Board, sure as you’re reading this, everything that’s been good about SAG will be lost and gone forever.
When all else fails, management uses fear to convince weak union members to act against their own best interest. That’s what is happening here: management is feeding the fear. So, I ask you, in this management friendly climate can workers really afford to give up what little power they have left?
I say, no.
Support Members First if you agree.
Not that’s how you stop divisiveness: with a splinter group!
t-rex
That wasn’t vomit your frothing at the mouth. Your diatribe here sounds real familiar. SAG board maybe.
Keven with an “e” said “Shit. Should I know who any of these people are.”
Yeah – Marcia Wallace was on THE BOB NEWHART SHOW.”
Praise the lord and pass the ammo. Thank you for stepping up. You have my unconditional support.
All these people were also for the Affected Member voting petition. For that alone none will get my vote.
So this Baskin-Robbins dirty thirty-one want us to vote them in. Let’s take a look at what they offer…
1. Pushing the merger with AFTRA again which was voted down several times by the membership and cost SAG millions to entertain an idea that the majority was against
2. Qualified voting, which ironically would also hurt most of these no names
3. They stir the fires of internal turmoil in the middle of negotiations which further empowers the AMPTP.
4. They criticize the current administration who at least have the guts to not roll over like the DGA and AFTRA did. An administration that is holding the line on residuals so that new media doesn’t become scew-media in regards to actors.
Two words: No thanks
One more word: A**holes
Funny – this is the same group of people that wants qualified voting. For some reason they think that the non-working Actor votes differently than the working Actor. So that means half the Actors on their list won’t be able to VOTE. Crazy!!!
Go to SAG.org and support your union leaders during these negotiations and sign the Solidarity Statement.
Peace Brothers and Sisters!
Wait Pat Skipper – They don’t want “ammo” they want to unite as they’re dividing this union.
T Rex
The AMPTP did nothing to you on DVD’s. SAG did that to themselves by taking the deal year after year after year. That rests squarely with the membership. 20 years …………. let it go and fight the fight in front of you. This is not an attack on you this is a statement of fact.