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Put together by the group “KeepSagRelevant”, this video is hosted by Martin Sheen and includes John Heard, Clancy Brown, Connie Stevens, Terry Moore, Elliot Gould, Anne DeSalvo, Renee Taylor, Jordana Capra, Daniel Quinn, Nichelle Nichols, Bill Mumy. (And the “Vote Yes” video is here and on the SAG website).
Editor-in-Chief Nikki Finke - tip her here.
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Now THAT makes me proud to be a SAG member! No hype, no spin, no drama, no disparaging remarks. Just the facts, ma’am.
Ms. Nichelle Nichols, your timing is superb! Marty, Clancy, Annie, Billy, John, Connie… where do I sign up to be affiliated with the likes of you? Oh wait – we’re all proud, educated SAG members already.
I tip my hat to you all.
It seems there are two mentalities at SAG. Those who are willing to behave like a Union and those who aren’t. One side thinks its the noble cause as well as the other. But one thing that neither side can refute… Management wants to kill any non-compliant Union. At this point it would seem to be SAG. Clancy hit it right on the head.
On another point SAG Members need to ask themselves how merging with AFTRA would give them more leverage. Isn’t “leverage” the ability to strike? How would the Soap Opera actors and Broadcasters be able to legally strike with the Theatrical actors? Wouldn’t it be the same amount of actors walking the street that you would have without the Merge? If that’s the case then a Merger would only benefit the Union that is absorbing the other. From someone looking from the outside my opinion is that this Merger campaign is being orchestrated by an entity other than the Unions.
My NO vote is in the mail, I could not mark that ballot fast enough!
Mad props to John Heard for the Democracy Now! t-shirt.
And if you agree, don’t forget to also vote on the AFTRA board elections !!!! This IS our future and there are a LOT of SAG board members running for the AFTRA board.
VOTE !!!!!
This video is WHY I’m glad my sag friends voted yes. Because they’re under the age of 60 and recognize that Martin Sheen’s personal arguments are complete crap. SAG shouldn’t strike because some ass hole who made millions already off of Gilligan’s Island residuals is further compensated for their minuscule online views and lack of current cultural significance. Every so often media has to evolve. The people being “hurt” in this deal have already made more than their fair share of profit off of jobs they should feel blessed to have had at all. Somebody should tell Martin Sheen to have a (product integrated) Coke and a smile and shut the fuck up.
This video is light years better than anything the “Yes” group has done. Voting No is now an easy call for me. Thanks so much for educating us Martin, Billy, Terry, Elliot, John, Nichelle, Anne, Renee, Daniel, Jordana and, or course, Clancy.
SAG relevant??? We had an iron grip on television which has now been given away to AFTRA because of focusing on the irrelevancy of “new media” at the wong time and wrong place.
Our far wiser partners in WGA and DGA are already working under a fair agreement and we are still fighting a war we lost A YEAR AGO!
SAG NO-VOTERS keep wanting more and more in a period of economic disaster, completely unwilling to accept the realities around us, and they are relevant???? NO–the nay-voters are irrelevant. And moronish! Get educated. Get a business degree. Get lost!
Well done video outlining the reasons to vote “no”. I think they focused on some significant issues that would likely concern most voting.
Are they interpreting the contract correctly? If so, new media will only get bigger. Just look at what Netflix (remember it became Mega via snail mail) is now doing online (e.g., windows media center is getting full Netflix streaming support, could be hitting Wii and PlayStation soon), look at Hulu, etc.
Will there be a rebuttal?
Danny…
Didn’t you ever wonder why all the cast members from Gilligan’s Island had to do dinner theater and celebrity conventions all these years? Before 1974 THERE WERE NO RESIDUALS you moron. Given your karma, some day you’ll be on a hit show for a couple of seasons… you’ll forever be identified with that character… no one will hire you again… and this contract will pass – with no residuals for the only place it’s being shown… ON-LINE. Wouldn’t you rather have some residuals to live on once YOU lose your ‘cultural significance’ ??!
VOTE NO!!!!
This is an excellent video. to “Danny” and his “friends under 60″ – your words – your hostility, your lack of respect for seniors who “were lucky to get jobs in the first place” and “made their money already” is both ignorant and reprehensible. You sir, are one silly twit.
Believe it or not “Danny” YOU will be over 60 someday, and IF we vote “yes” on this contract, expect the AMPTP to demand further concessions down the road that will rob YOU of residuals YOU need to pay your bills once YOU’RE over 60.
Again, the tide is turning. Everything said in this video is true – everything said in the “yes” video, either concerns the “traditional media” raises part of the contract (TV and movies) and the slight raises THERE we are still holding out on, or, it is a complete LIE about the “New Media” part of the contract – claiming “jurisdiction” has been gained in the area ALL content is headed, when, in fact, if you READ the damn thing, you see the “jurisdiction” ACTUALLY means one of two things: NO residuals for ALL content made for New Media, OR, MICROSCOPIC residuals for EVERYTHING else, AFTER periods of “free windows” where the producers can run your stuff on the internet, thereby devaluing it by repetition for FREE – BEFORE your whopping $250 or $450 or whatever it is (It’s not much more than that, that I know) for “6 months of airing in new media.” That’s RIDICULOUS!
How will ANY middle-class actor make a living on those numbers?
How will middle-class actors be able to go out and compete with nonunion actors INVITED INTO OUR CONTRACT FOR THE FIRST TIME IN SAG HISTORY, after the career they’ve had, at LEAST being IN a union they EARNED their way into as ACTORS (unlike AFTRA, where ANYBODY can join)at least knowing IF they got the job, they’d be paid fairly, there would be fair deposits by producers into SAG’s P&H plan, knowing they’d be paid strong, real, bill-paying RESIDUALS once that content aired ANYWHERE once they made it.
This contract? Asks the SAG actor, to go out and compete against nonunion actors, for new media jobs that pay peanuts, no P&H and NO RESIDUALS.
THEY ARE TRYING TO BREAK THE UNION. WE MUST VOTE “NO” – GET A STRIKE AUTHORIZATION AND VOTE “YES” ON THAT SAV, TO GIVE OUR REPS (and if David White is the guy who is supposed to rep us in talks with the producers once we vote this down and get an SAV – I suggest we run him out of town on a rail and get a fighter in there – like Clancy Brown, AMJ, Alan Rosenberg. there are others too) – David White wants to SELL US DOWN THE RIVER – as does MANY in UFS, NY board, RBD board, and USAN.
The tide is turning. Vote “NO!” and then lets go get a FAIR contract that protects us and pays us fairly in New Media – AS IT GROWS – WE GROW WITH IT – with good salaries, P&H AND residuals.
This IS easily do-able via a percentage of the gross income of WHOEVER makes ANY profit off ANY actors work in New Media. They make REAL money? SAG gets paid X% They make so-so money? SAG gets paid the SAME X% They break even or lose money? They have NO FIXED obligation to SAG – unlike the obligations they have to us in traditional media now, REGARADLESS of how the project does.
We are offering them, in New Media, a deal that allows us to share in the losses as they “experiment” and the gains when they start to make real money, with transparency for SAG to look at the numbers that the producers MUST comply with or face STIFF penalties.
Why won’t the producers let SAG GROW WITH them in New Media?
BECAUSE THEY DON’T WANT TO PAY US RESIDUALS and BECAUSE THEY KNOW OUR INCOMES WILL DROP SO FAR SAG WILL BECOME A SHELL THAT MAY BE SO WEAKENED IT IS FORCED TO MERGE WITH AFTRA ON AFTRA’S TERMS.
Do YOU want that? Understand – SOME members of the Screen Actors Guild DO (James Cromwell, Gabrielle Carteris, Ned Vaughn, Amy Brenemann, Mike Farrel, Mellisa Gilbert – ALL the UFS people and a lot of the NY board, the RBD board and ALL the members who do a LOT of or MOSTLY AFTRA work).
AFTRA wants what SAG has – for 75 years, we have been telling them SAG doesn’t want what AFTRA has – bad finances, bad management, shaky P&H, joining with broadcasters and recording artists with different needs and agendas than SAG actor’s, a lack of protections for actors that are a given with SAG, inferior contracts just to grab jurisdiction from SAG, free-windows and/or NO residuals.
Let’s settle this thing once and for all. Vote “NO”
Let’s get a strike authorization (75%! – WE need EVERYONE to send THAT ballot in with a “yes” if and when it comes!) then we have the authority FOR THE FIRST TIME IN THIS PAST YEAR to say to the producers:
“here’s what WE call a “FAIR” deal. Give it to us, or we strike!”
Then, as tough as striking is, we find out how long the producers want NO MOVIES BEING MADE. NO SAG TV BEING MADE. They won’t last long – it will CRIPPLE them and a strike authorization SCARES THE SHIT OUT OF THEM.
Let’s FINALLY say “no” to this crap deal, the GET an SAV and strike for our livelihoods, our families, for our seniors, for the coming generation of actors.
Of course not one of them focuses on the point-
“What is the alternative?”
Kudos to those who participated in the Vote No video. It’s most inspiring when union members take a public stand for what’s right. And I do believe they are right. It is a disgraceful contract, and it’s most disgraceful that under it, pre-74 television programming streamed on the Internet will pay no residuals to performers. The first show I watched on Hulu was one of the Alfred Hitchcock Presents episodes.
HOWEVER. . .For years now, the studios have been mining the British Commonwealth countries for actors for U.S. television series and films, and while filming elsewhere than the U.S., they have been able to find actors who can play American characters and thus avoid paying SAG rates to anyone but U.S.-based principals. This tactic has affected film for the most part. Now Fox has a studio in Bogota, Columbia, where they filmed episodes of Mental. Who do they have playing the supporting characters? Why, Canadian actors, of course. Meanwhile, reality television has further eroded the actors’ position in the entertainment industry. My point is, the studios have positioned themselves to completely decimate SAG by moving even more production out of the country. To make matters far worse, a sizeable contingent of the most powerful SAG actors has decided that it’s within its interest to distance itself from the concerns of the rank and file.
I’m afraid of what will happen to SAG if this contract is turned down. I’d be most appreciative if a Vote No supporter would weigh in on my concerns.
For those of you that want to vote no, as I do, PLEASE MAKE SURE THAT YOU SEND A LINK TO THIS VIDEO to EVERY SAG member you know. Get this out in a viral way with email. DO NOT ASSUME THAT EVERYONE is educated on this…HELP EDUCATE people…Send it TODAY!
Well, for those who don’t think the “yes” voters are doing anything, Melissa Gilbert is doing her best impression of a twit, ahem, twitterer and twitting to anyone who will listen that Ed Asner and his ilk are “despicable and disgusting.”
Great video!!!!!!!!!!!! I loved it and it was great to see some new faces. Job well done.
Regarding the bonehead post of “Danny” , I can only assume he is not a SAG member. Or he must be good friends with UFS’s Ned Vaughn because “Danny” “let them eat cake” statement regarding “the people being hurt are millionaires anyway…: is very similar to a comment made by Ned Vaughn from the dais at Thursday’s informational meeting. Talking about throwing folks under the new media bus. And he had the nerve to say it not only in front of over 600 members, but in the face of Connie Stevens (just look up the amount of work that one actress has done prior to 1974/1971) but Nichele Nichols and others. He’s either the most ignorant actor I’ve seen in a long time or he’s so arrogant and selfish that he has very little care or concern for SAG members who won’t see a dime from their classic work constantly streamed in new media.
I’ve been reading what the vote yes people have been putting out to the members and on another site they are claiming that the original negotiating team approved giving up residuals for pre-1971 pre1974 work. Well, that’s just a lie. I called two of the original negotiating team members and both said that never, at any point, did they even consider giving away those residuals. NEVER!! So, for SAG or others to say that they did is a lie.
Anyway…. great video. I look forward to more. Please do more!!!
danny
what about all the mlilionaire actors who want us to vote yes?
aren’t they lucky to have ever had their jobs?
this contract doesn’t affect them as actors,
so why are they so hot to have us vote yes?
everybody has a selfish reason.
big stars who are also producers don’t want anything messing with their plans
some series regulars don’t want a strike messing with their gravy train.
some people who are heavily vested in AFTRA want to weaken SAG to the point where a merger is unavoidable so they can be assured
of collecting their AFTRA pensions, or they don’t make enough in either union to qualify for health coverage.
what these, (the latter), can’t seem to grasp, is under the terms of this
contract, there won’t BE a pension or health program in
10 years, merger or no merger.
do you get that part danny?
the elimination of residuals will decimate pension and health and then there won’t be a union.
which is what the comglomerates want.
they’ve been very clear about that.
MY selfish reason for wanting this contract shot down is that
it will severely inhibit me from making a proper living.
our careers go up and down and residuals are what help middle-class
actors survive to act another day.
that’s what this whole thing is about.
what’s your selfish reason for want to vote this up, danny?
if you’re a middle-class actor like me,
THIS CONTRACT WILL NOT HELP YOU IN ANY WAY,
and could very well cripple your career.
if you’re one of the types of actors listed above,
then we already know the answer.
are you even an actor at all? or a Studio troll?
why don’t you grow some stones and write out your full name
and then YOU can be the one to tell Martin Sheen to shut the f**k up.
or you can just continue to shoot your mouth off about things
you do not or cannot understand.
you’re an ignorant little moron danny
Matt,
Residuals for Move-Over to New Media (from another source like TV) is about $23 bucks for six months, after 17-24 FREE days (24 hours) of streaming.
There are NO residuals ever for Made-For New Media.
And New Media is not just the Internet. This is for any device or platform yet to be invented, throughout the Universe.
Sternboy raises a solid point and undecided raises legitimate concerns- What’s the alternative? What are the options.
The video nails the why vote “no” part. Unless there’s a compelling rebuttal, they point out important flaws in the proposed contract.
Question: Can they also set forth a counterproposal or alternative? Vote “no” but then what? If it’s “strike”, fine but it’s important to outline next steps if the no vote wins.
Is there a counterpropal? What terms would the “no” camp fight or settle for (is there a compromise proposal that improves on the current proposal).
Is the only alternative a strike?
How much leverage does SAG or any US based union really have in this global economy?
Despite the merits in the video arguing for a “no” vote, these are all legit questions that shouldn’t be ignored.
Moreover, these are no ordinary times. Google: [pimco "new normal"] for Mohamed El-Erian’s view on the future AFTER THE RECESSION or take a look at the recent FRBSF Economic Letter (US Household Deleveraging and Future Consumption Growth). (This info might also mean less theater tickets and more at home streaming making new media even more important).
The goal should be to get everyone back working asap under an acceptable contract.
ya want this job without residuals? ya wanna be sued over a commercial conflict you didn’t create and couldn’t rectify? ya’ wanna watch jurisdicttion disappear? g’head. i don’t. NO.NO. NO.
to sternboy,
you and others keep saying, “What’s the alternative?”
“What’s the back-up plan?”
well, there are no guarantees in life and certainly none in show business.
all of us actors knew when we chose this thing that it goes up and down.
we will work AND be unemployed.
so now you’re asking for a guarantee.
the only guarantee right now is that, if we accept this contract,
SAG’s revenues will likely be cut in half in the next 5 – 10 years.
and then? no pension plan. no health plan.
the reason we have a union is to ensure
that WHEN WE DO LAND A JOB,
we will be fairly paid, will work under fair conditions,
and will be compensated for the re-use of our work.
most of us have to audition for everything we get.
there are never any guarantees of work, except for series regulars.
and even then,
NO JOB LASTS FOREVER.
all we ever have is the OPPORTUNITY TO FIND WORK.
what the moguls are offering us with this contract is the
opportunity to audition, which we always have anyway,
in exchange for:
okaying non-union work … AND
agreeing to a new media re-use structure that will quickly eliminate residuals as we know them.
there’s a lot of other heinous shit in this contract as i’m sure you know,
but for me those are the two biggies.
we’re in a tough spot.
this is class warfare, whether you want to believe it or not.
if we defeat this piece of shit, then we send out an SAV.
that will scare the shit out of the moguls who are COUNTING on this thing passing.
at some point they will have to get back to the table.
the YES people want us to believe that the industry slow-down is
because of these union problems. bullshit.
the studios have run their operations on credit for decades.
cashless. they’ve never put anything aside for an economic
crisis like this. that was considered a suckers game.
movies are making more money than ever.
their most profitable sector right now
the threat of shutting down that gravy train will make them pause.
we straighten this contract out, THEN we resolve our differences with
AFTRA. hopefully the AFL-CIO will do something to earn
the $400,000 we pay them every year, and we will be able to hammer out jurisdictional guidelines once and for all.
if we are to have shared jurisdiction, then it needs to be balanced
and equal in terms of wages and re-use.
we as actors can no longer allow our services to be offered at
WAL-MART prices.
one thing at a time.
Let’s not forget that we are the entertainers. We come before the entertainment business. Without us, there is no show business. If we say no to this contract, then the AMPTP needs to meet us halfway. We’re not being unreasonable. We’re not the auto workers union. We’re a bunch of actors who are already struggling to make a living. This contract would ensure that most of us will never make a living. New media is here and we’re a hardware release away from seeing this firsthand. When a tv can connect to the internet directly so that you can view an episode of 30 Rock anytime — that is called NEW MEDIA. Not so new or far down the road is it folks. In fact, it’s already here. So when Alec Baldwin gets nothing for what is essentially a re-run, well, that would be Alec’s fault wouldn’t it?
We have a responsibility to defend our right to fair compensation for our work because it’s our work. Don’t expect the studios to just hand it to us when the economy improves. That is the height of ignorance, cowardice and naivete. It is for us to claim as its our work. Our work.
In Solidarity.
SAG is in a uniquely bad, compared the the other unions, position. The other unions didn’t have a “Scumbag” union (AFTRA) waiting like a vulture, to steal SAG’s jurisdiction while its fighting to get a fair deal for actors. AFTRA should go down in history as the Judas union. Actors should universally decertify the Scumbag union. Hardly any actor I know prefers AFTRA.
The deal still sucks. The fact that AFTRA ratified a contract, with the help of weathermen in Peoria, that allows non-union productions by our signatories, is the worst anti-union betrayal, I’ve ever seen. The fact that the giant conglomerates are asking SAG to ratify a contract that forces SAG’s wages lower than AFTRA’s in a slap in the face. That alone should make SAG members want to vote no. Why did the conglomerates do that?
Because of the gutless New York and RGB members and some weak willed “stars” that undercut SAG’s ability to get a SAV, meant that they “could”. The SAG negotiators were unarmed.
Voting no puts SAG’s in jeopardy though, because jurisdiction will be lost because of AFTRA’s raiding. This is the worst situation SAG has been in that I can remember. I blame AFTRA. AFTRA’s got to go.
EXCELLENT! THANK Y0U! FINALLY, RESPONSIBLE SAG MEMBERS MAKING SENSE OUT OF A NONSENSE CONTRACT — VOTE “NO!”
David -
Re – “If we say no to this contract, then the AMPTP needs to meet us halfway.” – That’s what I’m talking about. The “No” camp should publish a term sheet of the halfway counterproposal so the voters see a roadmap to getting a deal done(note the backlash President Obama received when he proposed to close GITMO as promised, Senate (both donkeys and elephants) voted no without a clear plan – might be the right decision, but what’s the plan). In view of the economic uncertainties (not blaming unions), voters likely need to reassured there’s a path forward even if it includes some tough bargaining.
“Let’s not forget that we are the entertainers. We come before the entertainment business. Without us, there is no show business.” – If that’s the case, than SAG is in a strong negotiating position.