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The strike authorization ballots will go out to SAG’s paid-up members, anywhere from 100,000 to 110,000 of the 120,000, on January 2nd. The votes will be tabulated on January 23rd and the results announced the same day. (UPDATED: See just released SAG statement below. And the AMPTP’s response below that.) I’m told the decision was made to avoid the holidays and to ensure enough time for informational meetings. Only if 75% of the returned ballots are ”yes” votes will SAG leadership be given a strike authorization — not a strike but an authorization to call a strike without having to go back to members for another vote — to help leverage the stalled contract negotiations with Big Media’s AMPTP. It’s less clear what will happen if the “no” votes exceed 25% – though it could mean no more negotiations and the AMPTP’s last offer sent out to members to accept or reject. And if it’s rejected, well, SAG and Big Media are back at Square One. Here’s SAG’s statement:
LOS ANGELES, DECEMBER 10, 2008 — Screen Actors Guild today announced that strike authorization ballots will be mailed to paid-up SAG members on Friday January 2, 2009, and will be tabulated on Friday, January 23. A yes vote by 75% of members voting is required to pass the measure, which would authorize SAG’s national board of directors to call a strike, if and when the board determines it is necessary.
Screen Actors Guild National President Alan Rosenberg said, ”SAG members understand that their futures as professional actors are at stake and I believe that SAG members will evaluate the AMPTP’s June 30 offer, and vote to send us back to the table with the threat of a strike. A yes vote sends a strong message that we are serious about fending off rollbacks and getting what is fair for actors in new media. I am encouraged by the response of the capacity crowd at our Los Angeles town hall meeting Monday night.”
”We want SAG members to have time to focus on this critical referendum, so we have decided to mail ballots the day after New Year’s. We will continue our comprehensive education campaign and urge our members to vote yes on the strike authorization. I am confident that members around the country will empower our negotiating team with the leverage and strength of unified Screen Actors Guild members. Our objective remains to get a deal that SAG members will ratify- not to go on strike,” said SAG National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator, Doug Allen.
Ballots will be tabulated at Integrity Voting Systems in Everett, Washington. Passage requires 75% yes vote from those voting.
Here is the AMPTP response:
It’s now official: SAG members are going to be asked to bail out a failed negotiating strategy by going on strike during one of the worst economic crises in history. We hope that working actors will study our contract offer carefully and come to the conclusion that no strike can solve the problems that have been created by SAG’s own failed negotiation strategy.
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I haven’t seen anti-authorization comments from Amy Brenneman and Ned Vaughn. So far.
I’m convinced they would be urging a No vote.
Maybe they think it would look bad for them, as new office-holders, to speak out against the union in which they command a majority of National Board seats.
So. The Vote No mouthpieces are the once-respected Mike Farrell and the greedy, obnoxious Danny DeVito.
And the second string mouthpieces are Amy Aquino and Arye Gross.
I wonder if Forrest Gump and his Mama will be weighing in soon.
The aristocracy of actors has the corporate media on its side, but they may need some more effective shills to sway 25% of the membership to Vote No.
AT LAST the vote goes to the actual SAG membership, and not its deluded, democratically elected leaders. Please do the right thing and reject this ridiculous strike authorization so we can finally complete our year-long screwing of every labor organization remotely connected with recorded entertainment.
Remember, if you strike over new media we’ll only come up with NEWER media where we STILL don’t have to pay you. So vote this puppy down and let us all get back to our champagne enemas.
Another step in the right direction, taken with concern and consideration for all SAG members; time to learn the facts, time to get home from the holidays and no time wasted counting the ballots. Also nice to know where and how the votes will be tabulated (transparency). Nobody was able to answer that question from me with regards to the AFTRA contract vote. Bravo SAG NegCom!
Even with the negativity on these boards (AMPTP shills or not), I’m very confident that the vote will carry at least an 80% “yes”.
So is the AMPTP (confident of the authorization passing), by the way, which is why they’re working 24/7 to spin that it will lead to certain strike. (And if it does, it will be because the AMPTP didn’t budge on offering a fair contract. And they know any potential strike will be their fault.) Nick Counter’s not gonna like that Strike Authorization letter thrust into his face. At that point, he will have failed to do the job the moguls hired him to do.
So, Merry Christmas, Nick! (or Happy Channukah -sp-, whatever you like). Too bad you won’t get SAG’s holiday card ’til the end of January, but that should give you enough time to finish eating your young ‘uns at home.
Enough of the “How can they strike right now in this economy?” I encourage you to go back and read about when the AFL-CIO, and unions prior to that merger, struck. It was often in more stressful economic times than we are experiencing today. The best time to address the concerns of those in unions is in the worst of times.
Besides, I don’t think you’d have the same feeling if Teacher’s decided to go on strike because their districts weren’t taking into consideration their specific needs.
And for the record, I hate fucking unions.
Urgent must read by Eileen Henry, former SAG ny President:
—–http://www.unitedscreenactors.com/?p=449———-
Very powerful and logical assesment. Please post this NNikki, in all fairness to true education.
I have already lost 99% of my clientele (most in the entertainment industry) due to the writer’s strike. None but a few have returned and they only use my child cars services occasionally. The writer’s strike has bankrupt me and countless others and now ANOTHER INDUSTRY STRIKE DURING OUR HORRIBLE ECONOMY? ARE YOU ALL OUT OF YOUR MINDS????? GEEEEEEEEEEEZZZ…..THERE IS A LIMIT YOU KNOW! IF THE ACTORS STRIKE NOW, IT WILL BE CATASTROPHIC AND WILL NOT ACCOMPLISH A THING EXCEPT ANIMOSITY.
Sincerely,
Califstarheart
A note from the cheap seats:
I am an actor struggling to raise the bar of my career. I only take paying gigs, which means I don’t have acting work 365, and must hold a day job to survive. I am not a SAG member because I can’t seem to ever meet the criteria to get in – criteria that constantly changes and is near-impossible to keep track of (I have yet to even meet a SAG actor who can explain SAG rules to me). I’d be a loyal dues-paying member if only… but no, I’m still after my card – been trying for ten years now. Brick wall. I CANNOT BELIEVE THEY ARE DIM-WITTED ENOUGH TO STRIKE NOW. If SAG actors appreciated paid acting work as much as, say, oh… someone like I do… ??? I’d like to see someone like Vince Vaugh or Tom Hanks take petty orders from a Supermarket Middle-Manager 7.5 hours a day… or Jen Aniston give up her opulent lifestyle to flip burgers part-time. HEY SAG, you won’t let me in… yet I doubt any of you would last 2 consecutive days in MY WORLD. I’m a good actor… that’s what my reviews say anyway… as few and far between as they are… I wouldn’t get hired at all if I got the kind of poor notices you people get on predictable and frequent intervals because you have STEADY ACTING WORK despite 1- and 2-star performances! I wish you could see the acting profession the way us strugglers do – paid acting is a PRIVILEGE. And it is getting harder and harder not to be bitter about the elitism that saturates the upper-levels of my fellow artists.
Dave Clennon,
What an inane comment. Are you suggesting that to oppose a strike and strike authorization that would mean you were against your union?
Personally I think the opposite is true. I think to support this idiotic suicide is to support the death of our union.
To Dave and other members of SAG.
You’ll never get 75%. I doubt you get even 50%.
One more thing: to any SAG members around the country who aren’t interested in the outcome of the authorization vote, please don’t vote ‘no’ just for the hell of it, or to keep up the status quo. If this authorization doesn’t mean anything to you one way or the other then please don’t hobble those of us to whom it means everything.
We’d certainly like you to vote ‘yes’ to support your union’s cause and future, but if you don’t care don’t vote ‘no’.
When the ballots go out, they should inform the members that the name will be changed to Film Actors Guild with a yes vote.
SAG will have some heavy lifting trying to convince me and many of my working NYC SAG members that we should vote “yes”. The uncertainty has already pushed a sizable amount of 2009 pilots to my other union, AFTRA. Doesn’t this leadership realize they’ve played right into the AMPTP’s hands over the last year? They have SAG and AFTRA lowballing each other to secure work — even though most of us are in both unions. It’s just dumb.
We need to vote “no”, then reunite with AFTRA (at least at the bargaining table if not with a merge) and come at this again next time with more strength.
And I can’t wait to see how they word the actual ballot. The last ballot made it seem like you were a spineless turncoat if you didn’t vote the way the leadership was pimping.
Mr. Leland? Mr. Pappione?
Good morning, sirs. How would you like your coffee today?
Which paper would you like to read this morning? We have USA Today, New York Times and LA Times.
Have you checked out that New Media landscape? It’s happening, sirs, it’s happening NOW. Would you like me to download a Charlie Rose show for you this morning?
We have a segment here, where NBC’s Ben Silverman tells Charlie how quickly the network is shifting content to the Internet. It’s happening so fast, sirs. Oh yes, sirs, in a few months, you can disconnect your cable or your satellite dish.
Three years? Oh, I don’t think so, sirs. As soon as I get the money, I’m buying a low-end version of that new TV with the Internet plug-in. I won’t have to watch my soaps while I’m making up your rooms. I’ll be able to sit on my sofa and watch them streaming. I just wish they’d let us fast-forward through the commercials.
Here’s that Charlie Rose episode I was telling you about, sirs.
http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/9554
Now’s the time to vote yes. People need to understand if you curl up in a whole everybody gets hurt down the road.
The battles of the past will be rendered meaningless unless we suck it up and go for it.
It’s Better to get the unemployment before the state runs out of money.By that time the strike will be over.
Support heavy metal music..
Wow. The studio shills are out in force this AM.
AMPTP: “SAG members are going to be asked to bail out a failed negotiating strategy…”
Strategy? We’re demanding a fair contract! The AMPTP sends a press release implying they think it’s a fun game of chess to force our families onto food lines.
These people aren’t human. Fight them with us or we’ll all be pushed around their game board until we live in eternal poverty.
It’s a game to them and to us it’s our livelihood.
These kind of people have nearly bankrupted our banks, and raised our mortgages to force us out of our homes. They have our money and our homes now. Don’t let them take our future.
YES is not the easy choice. It’s the only choice.
So, when the entertainment giants start to go belly-up…
That’s funny Pappione…
Pappione and Leland,
“All of” us are not voting for a – “deciding to” – strike, we are voting to give our negotiators the power (“permission”) to strike if we’re forced to do so.
Our opposition, the AMPTP, is the only body saying that a strike authorization is a sure strike – but they’re the opposition, not SAG (who is doing the voting), and they have a huge financial stake in spinning this information.
Let’s call the strike authorization what it is: “authorization”. It’s a necessary negotiation tool, implemented only when labor has no other choice to secure our present and future income. Sure, it’s possible that SAG will strike with membership’s authorization to do so – but ONLY if the AMPTP continues to bully us into this corner, as they’ve done with AFTRA, IATSE and WGA.
No doubt the vote will carry.
All you AMPTP shills infesting this site can go away now, just tell your Bosses it’s a done deal and to leave you alone to do some real work — like compute all the New Media profits — I mean, residuals due WGA Members.
A failure to honestly negotiate with SAG (and a year ago the WGA) on the part of the 8 executives hiding behind the AMPTP (and taking out pricey trade ads while they fire competent people) does not constitute a failed negotiation strategy on SAG’s part (or for that matter the WGA).
Just sayin’…
OK, so if we go on strike, pilot season still goes on — it’ll just be an all-AFTRA pilot season. Television will not be shut down. Yes, the few remaining SAG series will be shut down but there are plenty of reality and AFTRA shows to fill those gaps in the schedule or maybe they can just strip Leno at 9 AND 10.
And lets say the strike IS a success, we get a better contract (really doubtful outcome, but let’s entertain the possibility). What happens then? Producers are going to go into the SAG store and say, “Yes I like these actors but the prices are too high! I’m going across the street to the AFTRA store where I can get the exact same actors at a nice discount. Bye bye, SAG store.”
The end result of a strike, successful or not, is the same: no SAG on network television.
I can’t believe anyone with sense is going to vote to authorize a strike. We need to immediately begin to work toward merger with AFTRA and then in 3 years, renegotiate this contract as a single, much more powerful union.
I have been a SAG member since I joined in Texas in 1979 in a co-starring role cast locally. What I am going to say is not going to be popular – but I agree that the Guild won’t even get 50% yea. Even the IATSE members I work with every day know that a strike will immediately drive the contracts to AFTRA, at lower wages, worse conditions – and will indeed, in the end -mean the end to SAG. The only real solution is an Amalgamated Entertainment Guild, comprising everyone but the teamsters. Then we could get a fair deal. I will in no case vote for this strike authorization, and firmly believe that only animousity can result – throughout the nation – to the Guild – and I believe, that this guild was founded and is run to protect the salaries of the established stars and star agencies – all to the benefit of the egos of the stars, their agents, the studio heads and their negotiators – and to the detriment of all so-called ‘middle class actors’ – and no ‘guild minimums’ are going to make any difference to the stars because they don’t work for minimum anyway. No strike no way! We’ll work, and keep working, as is until we have one guild.
SAG had its chance at a fair contract. Instead of working together like a Union should, they decided to have a bitchfest, first with AFTRA then with each other.
Therefore they didn’t deal with the studios properly, that’s on SAG’s head not the studios. But no of course it’s always the other guys fault. No one can stand up and take the blame for the crappy leadership. It’s gotta be the Studios fault… No one else here is to blame. *rollseyes*
Ben Silverman knows one thing: How to make money.
Ben can get glassy-eyed about his “mentor” Brandon Tartikoff all he wants, but Tartikoff actually cared about the content on his network. It wasn’t about money as much as it was about content, the development of talent, and winning time slots.
I love how anyone who doesn’t want to strike is a corporate shill. Maybe we should start calling all you strike mongers “Rosenberg lackeys”. Some of us know how lucky we are to get paid to play dress up and make believe and would like to pay our mortgages. I somehow don’t think trying to feed my children is as selfish as a guy who lives off of the millions that his wife makes as an actress trying to put the rest of us out of work so he can escape her shadow. Apparently she didn’t like him that much either.