Comments (21)

• It seems like SAG has more fighting spirit against itself than with the AMPTA. Does anyone see anything wrong with this?

  Comment by sam — Friday July 25, 2008 @ 5:08pm PST  Reply to this post

• I wonder if the pro-AMPTP/AFTRA/DGA support team at the LA Times will even run this info (let alone run candidate pictures like they did with United for Strength). Call me a cynic, but somehow I doubt it.

  Comment by Hmmmmm...? — Friday July 25, 2008 @ 5:24pm PST  Reply to this post

• I would love to see someone run as a “SAG member” not under a specific “Agenda”. I disgusted by all of you. Your arrogance is child like and you need a “Time Out”. Go to your rooms ………… All of you!…… Now!!!

  Comment by #44 — Friday July 25, 2008 @ 6:50pm PST  Reply to this post

• They’ve done so well so far, we really should vote for them to return. Really.

  I mean, all that stuff about not having a contract and a $6.5 million dollar deficit? That’s not important. Making it impossible to get a decent pension from SAG? Who cares about that?

  What’s important is fighting with AFTRA, and Membership First has shown that it really does that to perfection.

  Comment by The Obvious — Friday July 25, 2008 @ 8:21pm PST  Reply to this post

• God, I hate actors.

  Comment by Alan Smithey — Friday July 25, 2008 @ 8:44pm PST  Reply to this post

• Go Membership First!

  Strong candidates for a strong union – one union for actors called The Screen Actors Guild.

  You want tough negotiators? You want to provide leadership that won’t back down? You want a board that actually fights for your rights, instead of giving in and giving away, piece by piece, the proud tradition of SAG and the hard fought and won wage, pension and health, and workplace protections of SAG?

  You want a board that will fight to unionize the internet, instead of collapsing along with AFTRA and giving away a huge non-union space for producers to exploit, an agreement that, for all intents and purposes, lets producers take away residuals (we didn’t always have them young actors, and we can certainly lose them if we agree to this contract and align with AFTRA)

  You want a board that will fight against merger with a duplicitous, back-stabbing union, transparently concerned with power and payback, rather than wanting what’s actually best for the union actor?

  You ever wonder WHY AFTRA has tried to merge with SAG 16 times in the last 6 decades, and SAG members have voted it down EVERY SINGLE TIME? Because AFTRA wants what’s best for actors? Or because they want expansion, and increased jurisdiction, and to be a player?

  If AFTRA is so concerned with the needs of actors, why, with 16 no votes stretching back over 60 years, do they continue to push merger with a hostile approach? “Merge, or we’ll poach jurisdiction, then provide substandard wages and working conditions.” “Merge or we’ll continue hostile attempts to take over SAG, rob it of its identity and very NAME, merge into a three part umbrella union (SAG, AFTRA and broadcasters, musicians, etc.) where SAG will be forced to subsume its clear, strong voice on ACTORS ISSUES and can be voted down 2 to 1 on issues SAG should and always HAS had clear authority over?”

  Instead of for ONCE backing off, taking “no” for an answer, and focusing on their own core constituency, and trying to provide competent service to the broadcasters and daytime tv players and weathermen and newsmen and anchormen and musicians that are their natural membership?

  Why do they continue to complicate negotiations, stab SAG in the back, insist on ridiculous amounts of influence at the bargaining table when SAG covers 100% of film and 95% of primetime TV? (and check out those awesome cable deals AFTRA DID negotiate).

  It’s time – NOW – to support Membership First, reject the current AMPTP offer, give the SAG board the strike authorization it needs to have leverage with the AMPTP,to HELP THEM get a FAIR deal from the producers, for what’s TRULY BEST FOR UNION ACTORS, and then, deal with AFTRA once and for all.

  Enough is enough.

  Comment by James Cagney — Friday July 25, 2008 @ 8:48pm PST  Reply to this post

• Hey #44,

  Are you in our union? Why do you care how we run? I would agree if any of those non slate candidates got elected, they usually don’t. But I’m not sure this is your union to be weighing in on our voting tendency’s,
  just hope that the fighting stops and this year is not repeated in three years.

  Comment by sagmember — Friday July 25, 2008 @ 9:11pm PST  Reply to this post

• Yay more inner fighting with each other *headdesk* can’t we all just get along?

  Comment by Enough — Friday July 25, 2008 @ 10:17pm PST  Reply to this post

• hey, SAG. Don’t you have something more important to be worrying about right now? If you have no contract, you have no union… and no board election is going to matter.

  For fear of sounding like a director I won’t tell you to focus, but it’s time to grow up and start working your priorities in the right order.

  Comment by Brad — Friday July 25, 2008 @ 10:23pm PST  Reply to this post

• Gotta tell you I love the phrase “AFTRA screwed us” , ……………… YOU ARE AFTRA ! ……….., and those that are not, (Duel card holders), do not have enough votes collectively to screw you.

  (side note), ….. Dear “sagmember”It doesn’t matter what union I am in. It’s obvious when people act foolishly. SAG is supposed to secure the best deal/working conditions they can for it’s members……. All of it’s members not just those interested in a specific agenda ………… Actors are so liberal except when it comes to protecting those that work closest to them and there family’s. Thousands of people are being hurt by this. Get it together.

  Comment by #44 — Saturday July 26, 2008 @ 9:52am PST  Reply to this post

• #44
  ah, the endless, uninformed, inaccuracies…

  aftra DID screw sag. that’s a fact 44. not the ENTIRE union you dimwit, but roberta reardon and the leadership, who made an agreement to bargain together with sag in april, same as they had for 28 years, then BROKE that agreement and went straight to the amptp and made a deal that makes it much harder for sag to avoid the dangerous precedents that would be given to the producers and would be very, very bad for the union actor. do you understand what I am writing? do you know what the aftra contract actually says? do you want to have a substantive discussion of WHY this is a terrible deal? please, let’s do that, cause I, for one, am losing the feeling in my fingers trying to explain, again and again and again, what you are either consciously avoiding, or don’t want to read, because it makes your points look indefensible. so, either talk facts about the language of the contract, make some sense, or stop posting. please.

  Comment by Wilma! — Saturday July 26, 2008 @ 11:15am PST  Reply to this post

• Wilma,
  You mean Roberta Reardon who AFTRA membership voted in as there president. I see it all becomes clear to me…….. Great argument! I know it’s hard for me being a dimwit and all. Your substantive argument of the facts has certainly straightened me out. Especially the name calling. Did you learn that on the debate team? Thank you.

  SAG screwed up. Sag tried to screw AFTRA.(trying to change the block voting, last minute) and when AFTRA turned the tables SAG cried foul. Should they work together? Absolutely. It is in every actors interest to work together but please please please do not forget who threw to first punch. SAG didn’t think that AFTRA had the balls to punch back. WRONG!

  SAG thinks it has power. You know what? It does. But it has no idea how to effectively use it. If it did we would all be back to work by now.

  You can whine all you want but the fact of the matter is SAG controls 90% of TV (if not more) and 100 % of film and SAG blames the weaker sister union for their inability to close a deal………… God forbid SAG take responsibility for their own mess.

  Comment by #44 — Saturday July 26, 2008 @ 3:24pm PST  Reply to this post

• look 44:
  to say that an argument over bloc voting is equal to breaking a public promise to negotiate together is sort of the same as telling somebody you’re going to hit them, and hitting them. they are 2, entirely different things: one is a statement, the other is an act of violence. what aftra did, metaphorically speaking, was an act of violence, of hostile intent. to equate sag’s behavior with this act of betrayal by aftra doesn’t scan. and I notice, you’re still all generalities – it’s a pissing match to you. the question before us is: do you agree with aftra’s contract? do you even know what it actually says? and if so, can you explain to all of us why this is a good deal for actors that sag should endorse by signing essentially the same deal? the rest is bullshit. make your case with specifics.

  Comment by Wilma! — Saturday July 26, 2008 @ 7:05pm PST  Reply to this post

• wilma.
  I never said AFTRA made a good deal. They made “their deal”. Now SAG needs to make “SAG’s deal”. I said before SAG controls a majority of TV and all of film. AFTRA’s deal has nothing to do with SAG’s deal. Stop blaming a third party.

  SAG screwed up when it took it’s eye off the ball “New Media” that should have been it’s only concern this time around. Instead they got caught up in all this bulls**t about gas money and selling hamburgers. All important issues, “but not this year”. SAG was last in line. Doug A. has been running this like an NFL negotiation, the only problem with that is there is no deadlines. There is no date you all have to report to camp. The new “season” has no start date. The AMPTP has all the time in the world and now they can start making new deals with AFTRA on all the new pilots that are being shot on digital, not just cable networks. It has already started.

  You can rail at me all you want. But SAG still has no deal and people are still out of work. Have a nice weekend.

  Comment by #44 — Saturday July 26, 2008 @ 10:14pm PST  Reply to this post

• #44 is right about AFTRA Pilots and new shows starting up and shooting right now. 90210 is AFTRA and will likely do well in it’s fIrst season. Landing a spot on an AFTRA show is the hot ticket right now for members in my union (399), if you want to keep your house and feed the kids as the odds of SAG setteling any time soon are pretty bleak. Hope what you think you will gain will make up for yours and everyone else’s losses, but those odds are even worse IMO.

  Comment by Transpo — Sunday July 27, 2008 @ 6:50am PST  Reply to this post

• hey #44
  sag never took their eyes off “New Media”, that’s why there is no contract agreement yet. the amptp demands huge roll backs,
  offers a deal in new media that could spell the end of residuals and you say take the deal. aftra made their deal. yeah they did, by basically giving the amptp everything they want. roberta reardon said ‘negotiating is the art of the possible’. well lots of things are possible, things like union busting. everybody wants to work and everybody is scared. aftra is/ was scared of becoming even more marginalized after merger was defeated the last time so they aggressively started going after cable contracts. well, they’re just trying to survive, you say.
  yeah and who’s paying the price for that survival?
  YOU. i assume you are an actor, yes? aftra is secure their own survival
  by screwing their own constituents. they screw their own people by writing weak contracts, they screw sag actors by undercutting our contracts and if you’re a dual cardholder … you get screwed twice.

  hey transpo
  i want everyone in all the crafts and services to do well.
  if you need to take an aftra show to feed your family, i get it.
  god bless you. you gotta do what you gotta do. but if the teamsters had a big beef with the studios how would you feel with all the other unions yelling, “take the deal! take the shitty deal!”? i walked the picket line during the writer’s strike. if you guys went out i’d walk with you.
  everything goes in and out on a truck. you’re the lifeline.

  Comment by salamander — Sunday July 27, 2008 @ 10:13am PST  Reply to this post

• It’s a shame when SAG and AFTRA contract negotiations turns more into like Cannibalism than negotiations for all actors getting a fair deal.

  One can only hope that the film industry workers understand that is more than just these two guilds getting a fair deal, but it is about all film industry workers getting a fair deal and that SAG and AFTRA just happened to be the two contracts that are up now.

  What’s going to happen on the basic craft agreement is determined by your actions to support your fellow union and guild members in getting a fair deal now.

  And as post by #44 you are so right “I would love to see someone run as a “SAG member” not under a specific “Agenda”. I disgusted by all of you. Your arrogance is child like and you need a “Time Out”. Go to your rooms ………… All of you!…… Now!!!”

  #44 as your post indicated you “would love to see someone run as a “SAG member” not under a specific “Agenda”.

  I feel the same way and that is why with great reluctance, I have decided to run this year. The reason I say “with great reluctance”, with all the internal fighting going on over slates and the very difficult situation between Sag and AFTRA and the ego’s, mistrust and lack of vision and solidarity of the labor movement as a whole.

  I have decided to run as an independent candidate for the Screen Actor Guild Board of Directors for 2008, because I feel one person does make as difference.

  Some people say I would be a fool to run this time around given the current situation, especially for a position, which is none paid one. And if I were to take their advice then, I would be part of the problem not part of the solution. We need to have the voice of reason in the room.

  Here is My 100 word statement from last year:

  Stop and check here if you are tired of givebacks. I am running as an Independent candidate who feels we deserve better contracts for all members including background. As a Labor and Community Activist and a former FTAC board member, fighting for our rights is nothing new to me. I have served on numerous committees: Low-Budget, Legislative, New Technology. I say no to Givebacks and yes to all actors being paid for their work regardless of what type of media or delivery system used. Vote no to slates and check here if you are tired of weak contracts and givebacks

  ~ Gary Watts ~

  Vote for a Independent candidate, elect Gary Watts in 2008

  Comment by Gary Watts — Monday July 28, 2008 @ 12:48pm PST  Reply to this post

• you guys are nuts…While SAG gets pissy about AFTRA the studios and networks prepare for a massive shift to AFTRA…you can’t rent high end digital film equipment right now…they’re all spoken for. Why is that I wonder?

  But don’t worry about it. Who cares about actually doing work in film and television? Worry about who to elect to the SAG board. That’s the priority.

  Comment by a suit — Wednesday July 30, 2008 @ 2:08pm PST  Reply to this post

• hey suit
  we all care about working in t.v. and film. we just don’t think we should be sold like discount socks at wal-mart.
  untite for strength, the challenging faction in the upcoming elections,
  just said that they fully support membershipfirst in the ongoing contract
  quest. wow … that kinda sounds like UNITY.

  Comment by salamander — Wednesday July 30, 2008 @ 4:45pm PST  Reply to this post

• #44
  the logic kills me. aftra made “its deal” and that has nothing to do with “sags deal” Um… o.k., but (now focus) if aftra hadn’t violated an agreement with sag to negotiate together? (too fast?) made in front of afl-cio president john sweeney in march? (I’ll wait…) we’d be talking about the sag/aftra deal, just like (say it with me) the last 28 years. but this is not the case, see? aftra made a run for the amptp to COMPETE with sag. that was an act of hostile intent. so now, sag is having to fight off a terrible deal that is the same as the aftra deal, because aftra put them in this position? see? it’s just 1,2,3!

  sag is thinking long term, because the short term has been blown up by aftra. sag is trying to save actors from a long term without residuals, up to 50% of their income. sag is trying to save actors from a long term as walking advertisements for dr. pepper and huggies, in movies and tv. sag is trying to save actors from a long term of another 28 years of 12 cents a dvd (”10.1 BILLION in DVD sales!” – variety, july 20th! producers be hurtin’!). and sag will probably have to strike to do it. that’s my guess anyway. and then the suits lose a few billion and then they say “o.k., let’s talk.” and it sucks hard for everybody that the suits didn’t offer a fair contract in the first place, and that aftra stabbed sag in the back. then sag gets a fair contract. then sag takes care of aftra, once and for all. see, actors don’t like being treated like fools. they don’t like the current “we hate actors” vibe. cause its a difficult way to make a living already, without chatter from the peanut gallery about how we shouldn’t ask to be treated fairly. aftra, apparently, has rolled the dice that not being treated fairly (again. it’s aftra) is not such a bad deal, because “a LOT of being treated UNfairly = MORE – than LESS of being treated fairly” in their current leaderships opinion. well, sag begs to differ. they think being treated fairly is the key to self-preservation. aftra disagrees. we’ll see who’s right – in “the long term.”

  Comment by Wilma! — Wednesday July 30, 2008 @ 9:08pm PST  Reply to this post

• To all who battle in the ether over the AFTRA/SAG issue, I am most disturbing by the lack of knowledge on the part of those who would indict SAG for a debacle they have not created.

  AFTRA’s leaders and board are alone the culprits. They dramatically announced in a joint plenary they they were walking out on joint negotiations.
  It was AFTRA that weakened actor’s opportunities to gain financial security for the next 3 years and perhaps the future by walking away…not SAG. I know, because I WAS THERE! I was as befuddled as everyone in that room.

  As to their reason for defaulting on Phase 1, it was not( as sited by the misinformed #44 that their concern with Block voting ( which they have time after time prompted AFTRA centric NY and Branch SAGboard members to do when voting on issues that did not serve their agends…that caused them to walk away.
  Seriously, everyone knows that NY and the branches do not have any major skin in the struggle for a raise in compensation determined by work in Television, Movies or Interactive Games.That work does not provide the bulk of their contracts.NY and the branches work mostly in commercials, industrials and VO ( and sadly, many non union promo jobs via ISDN lines from home). That’s a fact.
  Hollwood does 95% of, Interactive, prime time tv and cable tv. And 100% films…which is why SAG NY and the SAG branches have long held an animosity for any movement to assist actors in those venues.
  In fact, NY and the branches made it clear in 2005, that they, along with AFTRA, would campaign against any issue involving an attempt by the SAG negotiating committe to bargain for residuals for Interactive actors. They won. The actor’s lost.
  Ahhh, I digress, So much to say, so little patience.

  FACT: AFTRA walked away from joint negotiations because their show, The Bold and the Beautiful came to SAG for sanctuary. The cast of B&B appealed to SAG to represent them as a union.

  Unfortunately, our NED director Doug Allen and our President AL Rosenberg could no. According to strict requirements set down by the AFL CIO as a result of a partnership we share with AFTRA under that union, they were unable to accomodate them.

  The cast was informed by Doug, Al and our legal department that they would have to work out their long time problems with AFTRA.

  FACT: AFTRA’s President Roberta Reardon and Director Kim Hedgpath were informed by the B&B cast that they were going to meet with SAG leaders, weeks before that meeting took place.

  Roberta and Kim were informed as well by SAG’s leaders that they were visited by them and that the cast was prompted to sit down with AFTRA and work out their grievences.

  Even with all that being known by media via personal statments by senior members of the cast, the trades consistently echoed AFTRA’s claim that SAG attempted to poach their contract, never alerted them about the meeting, and that is why they decided to break the Phase 1 agreement with SAG and begin their own negotiation with the AMPTP ( which ultimately took a shorter time to conclude then a series episode ) ,

  So we must ask ourselves. If their reason is obviously falacious, then why did they walk away? If the believe there is strength in numbers and therefore stand behind merger,which according to them and their SAG counterparts would give make them a stronger union, why negotiate on their own now? Makes no sense on the face of it. Does it #44?
  Ah. Simple answer. Losing revenue at an escalated rate over many years ( and having to be bailed out by SAG to the tune of millions) , they have long salivated over the contracts that have historically been SAG’s jurisdiction.
  Instead of organizing their own contracts from non union news stations ( MSNB, CNN, FOX NEWS, etc Including Larry King ), they chose to quietly poach nighttime scripted dramatic shows ie Damage, Dirt, Kyle XY etc by offering contracts to managment that undercut SAG… and leave the middle class actor with an inferior contract.

  That is the truth, and that is why we are where we are today.

  “The pox on both their houses” invective expressed by many on this site, is equivilent to blaming the rape victim along with the rapist.So, would you rather we don’t try to talk AFTRA out of he rape? We did try several times unsuccessfully. So, should we not broadcast what really happened to our members, which would indeed place the blame on AFTRA because it is not seemly to ” fight”?
  How many of you would take a punch to the stomach and then to the chin and not fight back because it would be ” ugly”?
  The SAG leaders took the highroad. Stayed away from the blame game as long as they could. Eventually they stopped dancing around the ring and hit back..and now AFTRA is whining along with their sycophants that SAG AIN’T FAIR.

  The actors who worked SAG contracts and are now forced to abide by the wholsale AFTRA contracts for the same work, are the victims here…… AFTRA, and ONLY AFTRA ( by that I mean those that steer that leaky ship ) are to blame.

  Brooklynboy

  Comment by brooklyn kid — Monday August 4, 2008 @ 12:37pm PST  Reply to this post