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SAG National Board Approves Joint Bargaining … 
SAG should announce on Monday its timetable for the strike authorization vote and aftermath. Also that night, SAG will be holding a "Town Hall Meeting" for membership:
Member Town Hall Meeting in Los Angeles
The AMPTP has failed to address the needs of actors at the bargaining table despite the efforts of your negotiating team and the intervention of a federal mediator. Your national negotiating committee has directed that a strike authorization ballot be sent to paid up SAG members for their consideration and approval. This Town Hall meeting will give Hollywood members an update on the negotiations and a chance to ask questions about the upcoming strike authorization ballot referendum. A strike authorization from SAG members will show the AMPTP that the unique needs of actors cannot be addressed by a pattern of bargaining. Actors needs must be addressed for deal to be made. Don't miss this important meeting. Let your voice be heard.
When: Monday, December 8th, 2008
7 p.m. – 9:30 p.m.Where: Harmony Gold Preview House
7655 Sunset Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90046Note: Please Bring your SAG membership card (paid thru October 2008) for admittance. Parents/Guardians of SAG members under 18 years old may attend with the minor
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Look at all of your articles today: Viacom layoffs, Universal layoffs, Paramount layoffs, Hollywood Reporter layoffs, Variety layoffs, highest national layoffs in 36 years, and on and on. Let’s see: wow. What a good time to strike! Hmmmm. Am I missing something here? Like leverage? Like any logic whatsoever?
I wholeheartedly agree with Mike Farrell, Danny deVito, Rhea Perlman, Arye Gross, and Amy Aquino: Our new deal ain’t perfect, but, let’s stay at work, and improve our deal in 3 years. The economy is cratering, and a strike would only make matters much worse.
I humbly encourage all interested parties, cast and crew alike, to show up on December 8th and let your voices be heard. This town, this state, can NOT afford a strike right now. And please, join the Facebook group, film crew against a SAG strike right now, which is almost 5,000 members strong. Thank you.
I am really hoping my fellow actors would prefer to still work and have a career rather than have a useless strike where we ALL will loose.
The job market for actors has already shrunk after the WGA strike and we do not need it to shrink further. If you are not Nicole Kidman or George Clooney you better realize that a strike will only set all our careers back. way back.
The economy is beyond terrible right now, people are loosing jobs left and right so the last thing we need is to be out of work too! As great as it would be to get the perfect deal that is not realistic and we need to learn from the United Auto Workers union mess and realize we need to be current with the times not flying in the sky thinking we deserve some better deal than the other entertainment unions — especially in these horrid scary economic times.
The Harmony Gold Theater only holds 400. Are they really expecting that much apathy?
Or are they counting on it?
Strike = Disaster for SAG and Entertainment Community
Strike = Bad Decision made by Guild out of Touch with Reality
Strike = Pie in the Sky Crusade
Strike = No Work
Strike = Career Setback
I don’t think the fact that the Screen Actors Guild was formed in 1933, at the absolute height of the Depression, can be emphasized enough. Imagine the balls on that group of actors when they formed a guild, told producers to take their 50% pay cut and shove it up their ass – and won. It was “all in” folks. Those people knew they either took a stand, or went home. They put everything on the line to save themselves and many, many others, so we could be here today discussing a profession that at least holds the hope of returning a decent living, with enough talent and luck.
There will never be a good time to strike. Or, a “better” time. That’s just nonsense. Let’s at least try to be honest about the thing. Whatever the economy, whatever the issue, there will always be enormous skepticism about striking – and rightfully so.
But any SAG member who educates him or herself has to face the probability that this is a power play by the AMPTP to phase out residuals, clip consent, make product placement a non-paying requirement for TV and film, and take away the protection of force majeure.
You want to give up half your income? I don’t. To deny that is a distinct possibility is being dishonest if you truly understand what’s at stake.
We see already the WGA filing federal arbitration because the AMPTP is not paying them new media residuals on the BAD contract we’re fighting off.
If you believe the producers, once they get this in writing, will renegotiate in three years, once they have established a beachhead in producing original content non-union, and phasing out residuals as all content moves to the web, then I think you are not being honest with yourself.
The AMPTP is pushing to get all the guilds in line on this, and they’ve got everyone but SAG – and SAG is the one union that can, conceivably, do enough damage to the AMPTP to make them move off this new world of fucking the unions, and come back with a realistic contract.
If you really believe, in three years, that SAG will be in any better position, or have any more leverage than we do now, I think you need to come up with some realistic justification for that point of view, besides “I don’t want to strike,” because, if that’s all we’ve got as a union when faced with this level of damage to an actor’s already incredibly shaky ability to make a living, then, let’s face it – we’re done.
As this gets closer to the edge, I believe the actors who are actually paying attention see this negotiation for what it is: a massive realignment of what it means to be a professional actor, and a precedent that, once gained, will not be undone.
We may as well call their bluff now and see if they are serious about causing a work stoppage to avoid paying actors fairly and not putting a massive non-union space in our own contract.
It’s now. Not three years from now. Now.
Pretty that some are posting negative comments about an informational meeting. Kind of tips your hand.
What is it about information that scares you so much?
While I realize unions can be single-minded, even the attempt to get a strike authorization is unforgivable in this economy.
I don’t think the fact that the Screen Actors Guild was formed in 1933, at the absolute height of the Depression, can be emphasized enough.
It has absolutely no bearing on today’s reality.
In 1933, Hollywood actually had an impressive audience. It was the main source of entertainment options. That’s no longer true. Less than 20 percent of people watch movies now. Today’s hit TV shows would have been cancelled as massive flops just a few years ago. The notion that the industry is recession proof is ignorance of the highest order.
I don’t think the fact that the Screen Actors Guild was formed in 1933, at the absolute height of the Depression, can be emphasized enough.
It has absolutely no bearing on today’s reality.
Not to mention in 1933 the studios were owned by… the studios. And the industry was hardly global.
That being said, it’s not impossible, but it really helps to have some leverage. Maybe SAG does, maybe they have a secret weapon.
Can non- SAG members come to this informational meeting? I work on a major network TV show, below the line and I am terrified about the possibility of another strike.
If I am to endure another, I’d like to know what you are fighting for…
The Comment above by Mars is right on the mark.
100% agree. We all need to clue in and not be
ignorant about this matter and how damaging a strike
would be to the entire industry – including to all the actors.
I guess you’ve heard that Sony is currently marketing a TV with direct internet access. This is the shape of things to come over the next 3 years. If you watch it on the internet with the current 2008 contract offered: no residuals at all, ever.
Even if you don’t buy a newer TV your cable box will convert the internet streams right to your current TV.
So all TV will work WILL PAY NO RESIDUALS with the 2008 contract the A.M.P.T.P. is offering to S.A.G.
I’m sorry the A.M.P.T.P is making us do this, but us S.A.G. actors who work rely on those residuals to survive. We simply have to vote YES on the STRIKE Ballot.
I don’t think any of us take the vote lightly and we are being forced to strike by the A.M.P.T.P
please aim you frustration and anger at the amptp they are the ones forcing us in the screen actors guild to strike.
we need a fair deal or we have no other logical choice but to approve a strike.
To Zachary: for those of us who don’t happen to agree with you, it’s not the “information” of this meeting that scares us so much. It’s the “flipness” of comments like yours that make so many of us worried. After all that we have been through the last year, if you think this meeting is just about dispensing information, we feel you are not acknowledging the obvious intent of this gathering. To us, who care about our union every bit as much as you do, this is the negotiating committee beating the war drums for nothing less than a strike. Pure and simple. And it’s not a good idea.
It’s getting really, really annoying to hear these battle cries of, “we HAVE to strike.” The implication is that you have some sort of right to put me and all the other innocent bystanders out of work.
The fact is, your leadership blew the negotiations. Why should the rest of us in the business have to pay for your leadership’s ineptitude?
And before you call me a “studio shill”, I’m not. I’m a crew member on a show. I don’t want to lose my job. Nor do a lot of other people.
The SAG diehards are willing to raze the entire town to the ground just to prove that they are in the right. It’s like a foolhardy king going to war and not caring that everyone, on his side and on the other side, gets slaughtered, and all possesions are lost. Hey King, what’s the point of fighting when your subjects, who are supposed to benefit from this war, will be dead at the end of all of this?
“Give me a break”
Exactly. So, WE don’t vote up a strike authorization to try to protect our ability to make a living because YOU make your living off us?
Believe me – you’re barking up the wrong tree. Get pissed at the AMPTP, not SAG for trying to make it still possible for people to make a living acting.
Please…
Every actor I know is checking the “YES TO STRIKE” box on that ballot. In the end, it doesn’t really matter what anybody else wants from us actors, we are going to watch out for ourselves now.
And the irony about it all is that a better SAG contract protects the entire industry — so have some foresight folks.
Plus — there actually is no better time to strike than when it is perceived to “be the worse time to strike.” This means there is more pressure exerted on the AMPTP to make a fair deal sooner — less of a chance this will drag on.
Support the actors — this is good for everyone in the end.
The set I worked on all week everybody, mostly the crew, was talking in favor about voting YES on SAG’s strike ballot, and nobody more than those in IATSE.
I’m not sure in what part of the business you people spewing about how wrong SAG is work. But from what I’ve seen SAG has all the support of the other unions.
T-Rex -
Thank you for reiterating that point. The AMPTP’s goal is to push a whole range of serious rollbacks on SAG. Because the moguls are busy migrating content distribution to the Internet as quickly as they can, any deal that treats residuals and productions at any budget for new media differently than for “traditional” media constitutes a serious rollback. SAG gave in on DVD, and the guild NEVER saw the AMPTP make good on its promise to revisit it when it became a cash cow. If we take the moguls’ “last best final” offer, we may as well not bother having a guild.
I still can’t help but think the current window-dressing budget-cutting measures and even the firings at the studios are essentially nothing more than a cynical ploy to plead poverty and somehow convince just enough actors to cave on the strike vote. Let’s remember the networks and studios used the WGA strike to dump a bunch of housekeeping deals they’d wanted to get rid anyway. The strike was just their face-saving excuse.
In short, the moguls are desperately doing everything they think they can get away with to create an atmosphere of fear. It’s BS, and these problems will suddenly disappear as soon as there’s a SAG contract, be it the extremely dangerous one they’re trying to shove down our throats or the more reasonable deal we’re engaged in the fight of our lives for. If Spielberg can charm a cool ten figures out of some Indian (dot) high-rollers, anyone around here think Bob Iger or Brad Grey can’t???
Anyone advocating that SAG roll over and take that rotten lousy deal is either a shill or has absolutely no clue whatsoever what’s at stake not just for SAG, but for the entire industry.
Paul, whatever set you claim to work on, the one I actually work on has 0.0% support for an actors strike. Let me repeat: 0.0. And that includes the actors. Methinks you’re a membership first shill making this up.
I sincerlely hope that Richard Masur will be allowed to express his opinions at the meeting. No matter how Rosenberg and Allen would like to silence him, his opinions are vital and important.
Anonymous wrote this: Methinks you’re a membership first shill making this up.
Anonymous–
I’ll infer you are a member of unite for strength, then, right?
I’ve never been involved in that petty internal spitting contest and don’t consider myself a member of membership first or unite for strength. I vote in elections, but I’m not politically active in the union.
I do appreciate your response as it does answer the question I posted as to where this alleged dissatisfaction with SAGs behavior is coming from when my experience shows an overwhelming support from our fellow union brothers and sisters.
Paul,
I work on 2 different shows, at 2 different studio lots. The support for SAG is Zero,0,0,0,0,0,0,. Even some of the actors think a strike in this economy is foolish. Most crew personal were split on the WGA strike (I supported it), but on SAG going out now, your “fellow union brothers and sisters” DO NOT SUPPORT YOU!
ANONYMOUS IS RIGHT!
Those who believe a SAG strike is wrong at this time will have a great opportunity to do more than just talk. What if all the other unions did not honor the SAG strike? What if the working actors who value their jobs ignore the strike or perhaps form their own union of WORKING ACTORS? What if?? It could happen.
Comparing a strike at this time to 1933 is evidence of just how far out of touch with reality some union members are. Are you seriously going to compare your lot today with that of actors in 1933?
This talk of a strike is little more than the overblown ego of a misguided union head and few failed negotiators who are being carried away with their five minutes of power. I say to them you are far better off being forgotten now than being remembered as the cadre that brought the industry to a halt during the worst economic conditions the industry has ever experienced.
If the labor unions don’t come together, they are all screwed.
TO: ALL SAG MEMBERS SHOULD READ
SAG “no strike”
Why SAG should not strike and sign their contract NOW. SAG is not any different than the other 4 contracts that have already been fairly negotiated by the PRODUCERS THIS YEAR.
1. WRITERS – if the words weren’t written their wouldn’t be a script for you to ACT in.
2. DIRECTORS – they are the ones that sit back and make you do take after take to make sure you get it right. We also know that the DIRECTOR is the one that gets the performance perfect, just ask one of the young first time actors or actresses who have been nominated for an OSCAR or EMMY first time out.
3. AFTRA – they just have common sense, they were very smart to sign their contract and not wait for SAG.
4. IATSE – We are the ones who make you look like the character you are playing, from hair, make-up, costumes, lightning, etc.
All of these crafts accepted the deals negotiated with the PRODUCERS, sure we all wanted a little bit more, but we wanted to continue to work and let these 3 years go by and see what the new media is really going to do.
To make a long story short, all the crafts deserve the deals they have already negotiated. The amount of money you have already lost ($36,737,000.00) and the amount you are about to loose by striking will never equal the deal that is on the table right now. PLEASE TRY TO UNDERSTAND THIS; YOU HAVE ALREADY WASTED 1/2 YEAR. YOU HAVE ANOTHER CONTRACT TO BE NEGOCIATED IN 2 1/2 YEARS (just around the corner) by that time we will all know how the NEW MEDIA is working. GET SMART AND SIGN THE CONTRACT SO WE ALL CAN GO BACK TO WORK – NO STRIKE, NO STRIKE, NO STRIKE…
As an independent film producer struggling (successfully) to get films made, I’d like to point out that SAG’s contract is already an albatross around the neck of our industry. For example, on my current film, while everyone else (including director, writers, crew, and producers) flies coach (or sometimes business) class to our location, all SAG actors must be flown first class. A great use of funds, let me tell you. And that’s just the tip of the SAG contract iceberg. Largely because of the onerous SAG agreement, I have made my last few movies in Canada, where the actors union is much more reasonable and production friendly. If SAG is idiotic enough to go on strike, they will only drive more productions away, and further damage our business here at home. But throughout my career, I’ve learned to never underestimate SAG’s idiocy.
All Broadcast networks were hurt in the writers union strike last year as it pushed many of their viewers to cable, eroding their viewership even more.
Now the Actors Union are getting ready to strike and this time they may just nail the coffin on NBC.
Until SAG creates a threshold of employment for voting rights, SAG will continue to be a dysfunctional guild. How can a group with such a high unemployment rate allow just anybody to vote on the future of the others who actually work and would be affected by a strike? If those who actually work as actors still feel a strike is necessary and appropriate, then it’s worth discussing. But the votes of people who are waiters and cabdrivers, who don’t mind voting for a strike because it wouldn’t affect their lives, are worthless.
Get it together SAG and don’t let industry outsiders like most of your membership destroy the industry at a time like this.
3 years. Wait 3 years to see about this SONY internet TV.. compile REAL numbers of profits. Get this town back to work.. the economy up to speed .. If in 3 years the numbers show residuals from the internet are a viable
financial influx – then SAG will have the support of the all the unions.
If SAG does not wait .. and decides to strike… there will be Change in the bizness.. with no HOPE for actors…and destruction of thousands of families and hard working crew members….Wait 3 years.. go back to work… Right now its a selfish and poorly timed ego trip of the 1st degree.
Wait 3 years..
Two Producers walking down the Street…..They spot a gorgeous blond, in a boutique working….One sez, to the other,”Ya know what? I’m gonna screw her!!!”…..and the other producer replies,”Screw Her out of What?!?!?!?” ….God Help Us All!!!!!
I have just one question for my YES voting friends here:
Please tell me what Alan Rosenberg and Doug Allen have been doing since June?
well?…
Exactly.
To “Anonymous” who says we make our living off of you….
The below the line crew don’t “make our living off of you”, we make our living with you. Isn’t that the point? We all work as a team on any production. Actors, producers, writers, directors, and all the below the line crew work together to produce a film, a television show, a play, a new media whatever. We all just want to work and not one part can go without the other. It’s a finely tuned puzzle that all fits together to produce an end result. Not one piece can survive without the other. There is no way around that and we all deserve the respect of each other.
Believe me, IATSE members are very well aware that our forefathers sold us down the river years ago. A 3%ish raise each year that adds up to less than a dollar an hour for some of us? Is that keeping up with the economy, good or bad, each year? I think not. And believe me, we are very well aware of how badly we need our health insurance benefits. After working a 75 hour week do you think I can even survive the next week without going to the chiropractor or acupuncturist?
And when one or two parts can’t agree it affects the whole picture. I understand the fear on all sides…fear of not getting their fare share, of losing what they already have, and fear of not knowing what’s to come. But at some point we all have to let go and see the big picture and decide to end this. We get it….we understand what you are asking for and you should get it. You also shouldn’t lose what you already have, that’s not right either. BUT do you have all the information and numbers to bargain this thing out now? Doesn’t seem like it. Have your negotiators put you in a spot of almost no leverage, strike vote or not? Seems like it. When do you dig in, make a deal for now and come back to the table with the real numbers in hand, to really make a united stand with your fellow guilds? It seems like with your election and your divided membership you have lost your strength in numbers, and at this point all the bystanders are just over it and lose sympathy for you every day.
And just for the record, as a film worker who is working on a tv show part time(and grateful for it, because there isn’t much work of any kind in this defacto strike that we are in) I don’t know anyone, SAG or below the line in any department, that is in support of this strike.
LP. clearly a sweet ignorant sheep. getting most of your information from the biased opinions of variety and HR ( all financed by studio advertising)…? obviously the SAG shepherds HAVE been doing something or you wouldn’t still be reading and commenting on the deal THEY HAVEN”T agreed to be fair… they’ve been courageously holding back the tidal wave that will wipe out SAG and all unions for that matter as they try to introduce the new “favored unions” clause and simplify everything to nothing but minumum wage for all….it has been done under the term “favored nations” in independent filmmaking for years…hello actors? VOTE TO EMPOWER AND AUTHORIZE YOUR LEADERSHIP. THEY ARE REPRESENTING YOU. THIER LOSS IS YOUR LOSS.
VOTE YES.
Ask yourself why the producers won’t give us residuals for new media…..
think its because there’s no money to give?
or because there is money to give, but they want to keep it?
think the producers want to keep residuals or get rid of them for good?
wise up, stop complicating the issue with all kinds of crap about timing, strikes, the economy, AFTRA, leadership, all that
they are making an end run to wipe out residuals, don’t be blind, soon all product will arrive through a single pipeline to your home…it will never be a “re-run” it will be a download…an EST or “electronic sell through” and you…will get…ZERO
very few people in the union are like me, making a good living doing nothing other than acting, but I am willing to strike, because taking our residuals away is wrong. So whine on about it all…ask yourself….if theres no money in it, why won’t the producers give it to us?
they used the same argument to rip us off on DVDs originally, how can people be so stupid and diverted as to miss the reality of what is about to happen.
actors get by on nothing all the time. so get some balls and stand up.
I don’t care what happens because I’m just a consumer and there will always be something to watch. I’m just amused by all this bogus bantering. “Wrong time to strike?” I’m sorry, when is it ever convenient for any industry to strike?
Above all though I really resent the term “experimental” and “new” for internet distribution. Stop patronizing us. Napster broke out in 99, iTunes has been selling music since 2001, and YouTube has been a household name since 2006. Hell, a year after it was created, Google bought it! This isn’t a new technology. It’s called the internet and anyone reading this blog right now instead of a newspaper gets it. You know exactly where this is going.
Strike or no strike, it doesn’t matter. If you’re IATSE, WGA, DGA, SAG, the flying spaghetti monster…doesn’t matter. You’re wasting time pissing all over each other pointing fingers about “hurting the industry” instead of looking at the reality. All you crew members worried about your jobs? Really? Then why not stand up for others? I hated my shows going away a year ago when the writers struck, but I respected you all standing up for each other.
Where did that integrity go? Most of the shows I’m starting to watch directly online have TINY crews and casts. And with a little googling, these folks aren’t in the unions. It’s every jackass with a camera for himself. And who needs lighting and make up on a screen the size of my credit card?
Face it, the entertainment industry is bust in less than 3 years anyway. So you all might as well stick together now. I’ll be watching American Idol on YouTube and Watchmen on bit-torrent.
WAIT 3 YEARS,
We don’t have 3 years. I agree with you 100% that then all guilds can unite with real figures, but for what? A retrospective on how we all let internet kill the video star?
The firsts real marketed web content premiered at the end of 2006 and early 2007. Lonelygirl15, SamHas7Friends, Prom Queen, QuarterLife, etc. ONE YEAR LATER the internet is littered with content incurring daily ad revenue. Each network already has exclusive content for their websites that don’t require union contracts…so you’re not going to work on or get paid for those shows either.
We can all sit around and analyze the numbers, but do we really not know what those numbers will be? It’s Home Video/DVD all over again except this time it affects everybody and on a much bigger scale…
Stop being greedy and take your current $759 minimum. Kindergardeners could of negociated a conreact by now. It’s been 6 months going on 7 and still nothing new from last June. If both parties really tried, they’d lock themselves in a room and not come out untill there is a deal or strike. Make up your fricking minds already. I’m sure I’m not the only one going broke because you guys can’t stop tweedling your thumbs.
DO SOMETHING!!!!! STRIKE OR SIGN!!