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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
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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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!!