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So the SAG campaign for board of director seats currently underway is now starting to mirror the U.S. presidential race. That’s because a celebrity war is overwhelming the real issues at stake for the biggest actors guild, like residuals and non-union work in New Media for the new contract. But perhaps it was inevitable. After all, SAG and AFTRA battled over big Hollywood actor endorsements just six weeks ago, and this SAG election between Unite For Strength and MembershipFirst is a de facto referendum on whether the two warring thesp guilds should declare a truce and even join together. On Wednesday, Unite For Strength sent to the media a list of high-profile actors who are supporting UFS’s slate of candidates. Mostly, these are the same VIPs who vigorously opposed SAG’s MembershipFirst contingent’s open declaration of hostility on AFTRA and the ratification of the smaller actors and broadcasters union’s recent contract negotiated with the AMPTP. (This, after AFTRA pulled out of joint contract negotiations with SAG after years together of bargaining with employers.)
In an email message distributed to 38,000 Hollywood SAG members, Sally Field urged fellow actors to support election of the slate in order “to end the senseless war with AFTRA and start building a united front of actors to fight for more working opportunities and better pay.” While Lewis Black declared, “Enough is enough is enough. Membership First has the divide and conquer strategy all wrong – the idea is for us to be united and them to be divided so we do the conquering, not the other way around.” And Patricia Heaton said, “SAG’s ongoing battle with AFTRA and the fighting within our own union is weakening us at the bargaining table,” said Patricia Heaton. “We obviously need to chart a different course, and this election gives members the chance to do it.” Also on the list of supporters of Unite For Strength are: Alec Baldwin, Ed Begley Jr, Kate Burton, Stephen Collins, Peter Coyote, Marcia Cross, Jon Cryer, Tim Daly, Jeff Daniels, Tate Donovan, Victor Garber, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Tom Hanks, Patricia Heaton, Felicity Huffman, Melina Kanakaredes, Anthony LaPaglia, Rob Lowe, Peter MacNicol, William H. Macy, Camryn Manheim, Alfred Molina, Ron Perlman, Freddie Prinze Jr, Amy Ryan, Tony Shalhoub, Elisabeth Shue, Gary Sinise, Eric Stoltz, Meshach Taylor, John Turturro, Nia Vardalos, Kerry Washington and Steven Weber.
I checked and MembershipFirst has not yet, and may not, issue a counterpoint press release naming the high-profile actors in its camp. So who among the names on the 2008 Solidarity Statement here are MF supporters – Jack Nicholson, Sean Penn, Ben Stiller, Kevin Costner, Viggo Mortensen, Patricia Arquette, Rosanna Arquette, Ed Asner, Susan Blakely, Powers Boothe, Tom Bosley, Josh Brolin, Dixie Carter, Dave Clennon, Beverly D’Angelo, Bill Daniels, Laura Dern, Sharon Gless, Andy Griffith, Louis Gossett Jr, Ed Harris, John Heard, Marg Helgenberger, Holly Hunter, Sally Kirkland, Sheryl Lee, Ron Livingston, Tony Lo Bianco, Peter MacNicol, Amy Madigan, Debi Mazar, Anne Meara, Laraine Newman, Nick Nolte, Edward James Olmos, Alexandra Paul, William Petersen, Patricia Richardson, Rob Schneider, Martin Sheen, Harry Dean Stanton, Connie Stevens, Jerry Stiller, George Takei, Lea Thompson, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Rainn Wilson, and Daphne Zuniga?
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Does anyone beside me think that t-rex and kristy kreem are the same person. Just checking
One thing that is clear. MF supporters are the most violently vitriolic spewers of profanity that has ever defined a group.
All I need to do is look for profanity in their blog and I know they support MF.
Wow, SAG is imploding with infighting – what a suprise! Oh and those pesky contract talks are over? With features going back into production full bore in September no one else will care that SAG members are getting last cotract pay – the AMPTP must think that it’s Chrismas already with SAG’s lack of strrategy of game plan. So back to work now, see you at Crafty!
As a fan with no dog directly in this hunt (although my BA is in dramaturgy for live theater and thus, I keep wanting to scream, “Mommy! Daddy! Stop fighting! Uncle Jerry’s ass needs to be so kicked!”), I needed to point this out:
Sean Penn and Powers Boothe are on the same side in a union matter?! Holy Crap!
With those strange bedfellows against you, United For Weakness, you might want to rethink your strategery of siding with an organization that on the one hand is a union that represents so little of the movie and television industry and on the other hand is in general so disinterested in the welfare of journeymen actors who don’t work in daytime soaps.
In that context — and I remind you, I’m not in the industry, I’m an advanced fangeek who, okay, knows a bit about unions because I was once a dramaturge for a production of The Kentucky Cycle at a university within 3 hours of Hollywood (and don’t start me on the stupidity of the SAG voucher system, which frustrates college actors to no end, whose end MF smartly demands) — AFTRA comes off looking to me not as an actors’ union, but as a refuge for scabs doing nothing more than hiding behind the coattails of a union of radio performers and newspeople and soap opera hacks.
What you guys in United For Weakness need to understand is that us fangeeks have for quite a while now had access to a great number of reliable sources on the interwebs — sites like this here Deadline Hollywood Daily, The Huffington Post, certain personal industry blogs (such as but not limited to Mark Evanier’s http://www.newsfromme.com) and even Usenet posts by Babylon 5′s creator J. Michael Straczynski — and consequently, we were *well* informed about the progress of the Writers’ Strike all along. And we spread the word about these sites through blogs, comments sections and posts to Usenet (Hi, everybody on rec.arts.tv — yes, it’s me!)
We got the word out through fandom that the AMPTP were off their rockers, and were pretty much the sole reason that the strike lasted beyond Thanksgiving, much less all the way out to February. The majority of the public never sided with the AMPTP. Despite the pro-studio propaganda of Variety, THR and the Times, we evaluated the information and found the Studios’ side to be a crock.
When fans find out — and it’s very, very easy to explain to them — that AFTRA only represents a handful of prime time shows and among them is one of the (Rules) lamest (of) scripted shows on television (Engagement), their reaction is — “C’mon, you have got to be kidding me!”
That sentiment among us fans is really not going to change. We’ve already known for quite some time, years even, before the writers’ strike that one of the reasons that television series boxed sets are often sparse on commentary tracks is that many actors refuse to do them as a matter of principle regarding the poor DVD residuals formula. As a result, many of us are very appreciative of the actors whose participation in the commentary tracks is immense, because they have great affection for the show and/or the showrunners.
We also know through the grapevine — yes, we have connections, shocker, I know — that commentary tracks have been done for a variety of shows whose DVDs don’t have them and the actors have just chosen to hold back permission for them to be released.
We don’t begrudge the actors for doing so — they deserve the residuals and withholding such permissions when they can is a power that we recognize that they should use. I mean, we literally can’t argue with it. More of our money (not more money in absolute terms, just more of what we already pay. Hee.) should be going to the actors — to you — than to the studios.
So in that sense, those of you who are siding with AFTRA over SAG? Why are you cutting off your noses to spite your faces when the vast majority of the work that you get when you’re not in New York is through SAG and not AFTRA? Why are you pulling for the continuation of the inequality of base pay and base hires between SAG productions in LA and SAG productions in New York City? Why do you not want the support of the viewers like me (or even casual viewers who are very unlike me) who are actually eager to side with you, support you and want to help you do an end-run around through/against the irresponsible, biased corporate media? Especially when said media isn’t really all that hard to do an end-run around if you just make a minimal effort to do so?
to SG
the particulars of the whole ‘pensions being threatened thing’ are complex and it isn’t just a case of “don’t worry about it, your pension is insured by ERISA”
right now it’s damn hard for an actor to build up enough credits in aftra for a proper pension.
they have a cap of $200,000 per performer, per year and the pension accrues at 1.7%. that’s it.
SAG has a %200,000 cap per EMPLOYER per performer, per year.
so, if you made 200 grand at SONY and 200 grand at WARNERS
and 200 grand at DISNEY all in one year (damn good year, i know!)
it would all count toward your pension and that 600 grand
would be multiplied by 3.5% .
that’s right. SAG pensions are accrued at 3.5%. double the rate of aftra.
how to marry up the two systems should be figured out BEFORE any merger.
the last time serious questions were raised about the pension plan and whether the new actor’s portion of the union would retain autonomy and what was discovered was that AIMA would in effect own everything. no autonomy.
now what’s the point of having a mega union if all those members can’t unite to put pressure on the corporations that are trying to squeeze us?
if, like now, the actor’s were at an impasse with the amptp, the broadcasters would not be allowed to withold their services if we decided to strike. there are federal laws against that.
so how does that make us stronger?
a union with too many different
groups working in too many different fields is DILUTED.
aftra is a union with diluted strength and their one great power,
it seems, is undercutting SAG contracts.
do they even want to merge anymore and if so, why?
if they do, it’s not because of some idealistic notion of having all actors in one house.
it’s money and power.
how is U4S going to deal with aftra?
i do believe all actors should be in one union, but the proposal that was defeated in 2003 would have given us one big aftra.
god bless all the t.v and radio people, folks who aren’t SCREEN actors.
i wish them only prosperity. but our needs are different.
force majeure, for example, isn’t really something that would affect broadcasters and radio artists, even radio actors. there aren’t any series done on radio anymore. but for the actors who work on television series it’s an important protection and to lose it would be a serious rollback. and once it’s gone? good luck ever trying to get it back.
i’m happy to hear you say that you think some of the membership first
gang are good people. i have people on the U4S side that i know and love. i do think ultimately, MF or U4S,
we all want a strong union that protects
the wages and working conditions we need to make a decent living
as the middle-class independent contractors we are.
if you think that U4S is the answer, then absolutely, you should vote for them. vote your conscience.
there’s an old saying, “Never go to bed with a woman who has more troubles than you do.”
well aftra has got problems.
if U4S has a plan that allows all actors to
work UNDER ONE UNION BANNER, that doesn’t dilute actors power of
self- determination, and actually improves our leverage at the bargaining table, i am all ears.
if they get in and they get everything they want for us …AND MORE
i will bow down to them and say,”you were right and i couldn’t have been more wrong.”
but i don’t think it will be any different for them that it is right now for the current administration.
ironically, if aftra had been in the room with sag and they had negotiated together with a 50/50 split, we could very well be stuck with this very contract that U4S itself says is no good.
Dave Clennon wrote:
“I sincerely believe I’ll be choosing a better future — for myself and the next generation — by voting for Membership First.”
People, don’t you understand that MF is the only reason that our union is in such turmoil? Voting them in again will only continue this madness. Where is your common sense?
Hey Rob J.,
As a self-proclaimed fanboy with “no dog in the hunt”, WHO THE FUCK CARES WHAT YOU THINK!
SG, great, u4c wants MORE. The question is, how the hell are they going to get MORE?
Undercutting the current negotiating team and playing right into the AMPTP’s hands seems like a really poor strategy. Notice how all the SAG haters and union busters around here just luuuurrve u4c?
In addition, you act like AFTRA will just fold up its tent and go away after being absorbed by SAG. if that were the case, everyone would support it. But it isn’t. The same leaders who, as you yourself point out, happily undercut SAG and hurt actors just to hold on to their own personal power aren’t going anywhere and aren’t going to suddenly discover the concept of solidarity over self. AFTRA wants a 50-50 split now. Especially when they seem so cozy with u4c, you think u4c will change its stance and fight them, or a cut a deal with them to get control and keep control and good luck to anyone who isn’t a producer, works the contract and depends on residuals? Look at some of those names and what their interests are, there’s your answer. They don’t want to get rid of AFTRA, they want to remake SAG into AFTRA.
You guys have been ranting about Hanks. Let me ask you could band of brothers been done in los angeles. He did earth to the moon here. what’s the difference. Location , location, location. Just wait until the Pacific version of band of brothers comes out, I’ll bet you say that we could have done IWO JIMA on universals backlot. Leave Hanks out of the mix your all just jealous. he has brains you don’t.
just a thought,
dude or dudette,
we can’t leave hanks out of the mix.
he is high profile guy who has taken a hard stance against the cuurent SAG administration and has openly supported the opposing party.
this is politics and when people make bold and aggressive
statements their motives should be examined.
Scanning the comments here, I read that Ned Vaughn is “no longer interested” in pursuing affected member voting. There is a huge difference between that and actually changing your position. All but three of the Unite for Strength slate are on record publicly favoring AMV, and to my knowledge, not a single one of them has repudiated that position. Steve Tom recently wrote that he still favors AMV.
By not repudiating AMV and ignoring the issue on their website, it seems like UFS is hoping they can attract votes from actors opposed to AMV. There can be no mistake about this. As long as the UFS candidates don’t publicly repudiate AMV, they can and will pursue it again if they are elected.
Membership First is on record as firmly opposed to AMV.
The difference between the two slates on this vital issue is very significant, and should be carefully considered by SAG voters.
I’ve just really had it, said: “It may be our last chance to maintain acting as a job instead of a hobby.”
Well (and here’s a hand grenade to throw into the discussion), when you make less than the U.S. poverty level (as 90 %?) of SAG actors do, is acting then a hobby? After all, most members of SAG have to do something else to support themselves.
As I have opined here before: PolySci 101 stipulates that a well organized minority defeats a disorganized majority every time. Yes, there should be qualified voting and keep AFTRA out.
The producers want a bigger, more fragmented union. They are thrilled with what has happened in the past year. Get smaller and you get stronger.
Good Morning to All,
After reading the prior comments, I feel that the Working Actors need to take a look at what effect all thier philabustering has had on the entire industry.
Many of us who work crew are the children or grandchildren of other crew members, and a fair majority of us also carry SAG/AFTRA cards.
IN MY PERSONAL case I am a third generation, Gram was at Western Costume; Uncle was a Teamster at MGM; Mom a Bit Player, Photo-double/Stand-in (for a really famous Actress during the 40′-50′s); Me, commercials as a kid. Now I work on the crew side.
I was raised with the attitude that for every person in front of the camera, there are at least twenty people behind the camera making you look good.
Currently many of us are in a major financial crunch, and we need to get back to steady work. If not many experienced crew members may leave the industry permenantly, and where would you be with inexperienced crew, crappy lighting, lousy focus, ill-fitting wardrobe, bad make-up & hair, bad food, snotty PA’s.
Need I list more.
So PLEASE stop your insider bickering and finger pointing and do the right thing by joining forces.
Fight for a contract that protects all of us, that includes payment for past work being re-broadcast/distributed via new media and/or TV.
What really ticks me off, is when I find work that my mother did, commercials that I did as child, available on the net and being re-broadcast on retro TV station. Yet do any of us in the same situation see even a fraction of a cent in residuals? NADA
Thank you for reading my rant.
Sad truth. Doesn’t matter what happens in this shitmix. The future of entertainment won’t include unions. These union fights and strikes are turning Hollywood into Detroit. You can find English speaking actors the world over. Wave goodbye.
It’s all about getting a good contract negotiated and signed. “We can no longer affort leaders who sow division” – quote from a United for Strength leader. But that applies to both United for Strength and Membership First. The question is who will be more effective negotiators for SAG.
I just have to say that I worked on a film produced by Playtone, that was shot in los angeles. I am awaiting it’s release. It was made here IN TOWN. As someone who has shot films in europe over the years, I would like to point out my problems dealing with that.
I made nothing on something I starred in years ago, and I have friends who had the same problem.
Then they created Global Rule One. I spent a long time fighting to get that in a film contract in london so my fellow actors and myself would get residuals and be protected. It DID NOT EXIST when they did Band of Brothers.
I would be shocked if John Adams didn’t use Rule One, for actors of that stature which means they will get residuals.
Finally, Speilberg was heavily involved in Band of Brothers why are you only blaming Tom Hanks?
I could go through and show you where Sean Penn shot in Canada or this or that actor supporting various slates.
But the truth is, this is more infighting that makes the amptp wake up laughing. There are really excellent and smart actors supporting both slates, please let’s move on to worrying about the deal going away today that all of this nonsense.
T-rex,
NO ONE is going to do what your big plan is, all aftra/sag dual card holders simply WALK AWAY from AFTRA. That is our current leaderships genius strategy. I would really like to hear how they think they are going to accomplish that?
Right now we are in a race to the bottom. Most sag contracts a forced call is 1,000. on some Aftra Contracts a force call is paid 15.00 dollars. DO you really think producers are going to stop going to Aftra to get cheaper rates for us? Do you think they are going to stop trying to get contracts over SAG? No, they are using Sag’s formula for indy films to unionize cable and they think that is the best plan if SAG didn’t want them. This continued competition; actors struggling to make TWO dues, TWO insurance work qualifications, TWO pension credits, and a million different AFTRA contracts has got to stop for us to keep making a living in these times.
One union for all actors, gives us all the leverage and those bad AFTRA contracts and deals will expire.
It doesn’t who does or doesn’t support this as famous actors, I know logic when I see it. I know this is how I’m going to be able to continue making a decent wage if I book a show.
to andy
the amptp doesn’t want a bigger SAG.
they have made it clear that they would prefer SAG to adopt
Qualified Voting.
why?
because a smaller group is easier to intimidate and control.
if the only people who get to vote are series regulars,
( this isn’t so far-fetched. if any changes are made to the one member-one vote standard, the “qualifications” can be changed again and again to suit whomever is in power.)
if the only people who get to vote are series regulars, there is no issue that would compel them to strike and lose out on all that dough.
so any measures to protect minimums would go right out the window, the little guy would get screwed again and it would be the end of the union. the union is here to protect the rights of everyone, not just the monied few.qualified voting in no way makes the union stronger.
everyone counts or no one counts.
to sag member
one actor’s union. yeah.
but if we merge with aftra, the aftra leadership that authorised these undercutting contracts isn’t going anywhere.
it’s going to be the same people who sold you cheap now in leadership positions on the new team.
now how exactly is SAG supposed to make nice with these people and heal all wounds? do we beg them to join forces with us?
i’m not trying to be an asshole. i’m just asking how would this be done?
who has a plan?
the current administration is taking a lot of heat for it’s so-called war on aftra. well, some of that behaviour could be described as
frustration and outrage at aftra’s self serving moves that are good for aftra but screw actors in both unions.
the plan that was voted down in 2003 would have given us one big aftra. what makes you think this new union, serving many other
factions besides actors, will have rates and working conditions that are better than the aftra rates now?
aftra agrees to these weak contracts for actors because they need to keep us working. our salary based dues keep their whole machine running. in 2003 after the last merger failed, aftra was told that if it didn’t start bringing in more money , their union would go bust in 10 years.
so did they try to organize all the non-union cable news shows that are actually part of their traditional jurisdiction?
no. they won contracts for
scripted hour drama shows, traditionally SAG jurisdiction, by
undercutting and selling actors out. they’re using actors like ATMs.
and now those cheapo contracts are out there.
why didn’t aftra unionize cable news shows?
i guess it was easier to sell us out.
now, how do we merger with these people?
Seems to me no one really cares about the industry as a whole, all you care about yourselves.
Patricia Heaton- Is right though, and too bad none of you can see it, because you’re all blinded by the star power of Membersfirst. The inner fighting is weakening your stance with the studios. It’s really making you all look bad.
Can’t we all be adults, oh wait that would be too much to ask for..
*sighs*
TV viewers don’t want another strike. Besides if you strike you will cause a lot of people to lose money, homes, jobs and well everything. Again think about other people, not just yourselves.
Nice, SAGMEMBER
Leah sez “The future of entertainment won’t include unions. These union fights and strikes are turning Hollywood into Detroit.”
Leah perpetuates the right wing lie that is the unions that destroyed Detroit, rather than management with their ignoring of Japan, their building cars with built in obsolescence, and their overall hubris.
Harry98,
If I pay you, will you go away and promise to never come back?
So I have a couple of thoughts. u4s wanted qualified voting right? People that did not work a certan contract cant vote on it or something like that. But they don’t want that anymore? Now they want to invite DJs, Radio hosts and news casters to vote on the actors contracts.
This don’t make sense to me.
And why do they come out now in the middle of negotiations to show the producers that we are divided. That would be YOU showing weakness Patrica… Not SAG.
And another thought… AFTRA said “no thanks” to unite with SAG in the barganing…Why would they want to unite with SAG now? They did not seem to hyped about being strong and united.
And Sally is a sweet lady that probably did real good research for her part as a Union fighter but I am afraid thats all there is, a part to perfom.
And why do you always throw out the “lefty” coment when you are for a union.
To me union is protection in numbers and u4s is doing more harm then good here I think. But I am just thinking. I am going on there web site now to see what they really stand for.
went on u4s website. I have an idea…Lets make Desperate house wifes, brothers and sisters, Psych ( oh that one shoots in canada), Jerhico (if it was not canceled you might not be qualified to vote damn it).
What would you say about that Sally? Dough? Dule? Anyone?
Oh I did not think so.
I have never read or heard anything out of doug allen’s mouth that wasn’t professional and respectful.
I know someone running on the mf slate in l.a.
he contacted a friend of his from college who is an aftra leader in ny, to ask a few questions about specifics and background for his own personal information.
the friend forwarded the email to a number of aftra compatriots for some answers he couldn’t provide.
the head of the ny local, holter graham, responded to my friend with these gems:
————————————————
you are an idiot. MF are idiots.
That only happens when the people you are negotiating with are wearing diapers, either because they’re infants or because they’re vegetables
Congrats on the gig. Now shut up.
At least TRY to actually understand the issues. Just for fun.
It is not “just take what they are offering” you tool.
Shut up and work together
Just look at Membership First. Would you buy a used car from these people? Would you let them babysit your kids? I mean this in all seriousness. Would you leave Anne-Marie Johnson alone with your child and then go to the theatre without any concern? Would you set your cousin up on a date with David Joliffe? Answer those questions to yourself. And then come hang out with us. We’re very nice people, and were looking out for you.
-Holter Graham
NY AFTRA President
———————————————–
now, do any of you wonder why there are such doubts about u4s, aftra and the depressing prospect, should u4s win big, of another merger attempt?
I’m IN aftra – and this guy is the ny local PRESIDENT?
and you expect sag to merge with aftra, when they have leaders like this clown?