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It was Ken Howard who started the nastiness from the get-go in this SAG election when, right out of the gate, the Unite For Strength presidential candidate shat on Membership First when he declared. Now here's a pro-Unite For Strength poster making the rounds in emails and on telephone poles (this was snapped in Los Feliz) which shows Ken Howard with a weapon in his hand as if he's gunning down the opposition. Howard needs to denounce it. I also was sent a pro-Membership First poster which doesn't even begin to compare in nastiness.
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Hilarious.
Can Rowan Atkinson sue over that last poster? Seriously.
Never stops how low some go.
How any actor can be opposed to merger is beyond me. Merger will save SAG. Ignoring a merger is certain death for a union producers and studios WON’T HAVE TO DEAL WITH. Baffling to me that Nikki supports the small mindedness of Membership First. As a producer-actor-writer, I get to see things from the other side: not merging will not bode well for SAG. We’ll just deal with aftra, pay our stars their quotes and capitalize on the fractured bargaining of the unions.
Gil Gerard & Erin Grey should sue about their bodies being used in that U4S teaser. That is from an old movie bill for the Buck Rogers move from the 70’s. IDK Nikki, it looks like an attempt at Sci-Fi humor went a little awry. Why that had to make a AMJ green skinned is a little disturbing. Was she not “out group” enough for U4S?
Oh please….now the tongue in cheek artwork is gonna be an issue? Doesn’t anybody in SAG understand why nobody takes their internal pants-wetting seriously anymore?
Wow, when do the people involved in all this get the time to act? The only people that care about this are waiting tables. I said I wanted my steak medium-rare Mr. SAG, take it back.
or does that baby look exactly like rowan atkinson
That baby looks an awful lot like Mr. Bean…
Sweet Jesus, do Gil Gerard & Erin Grey know they’ve become Photoshop body doubles for Howard & Aquino?
And where the heck is Twiki, the world’s most annoying robot? Cause if you’re going to rip off the cheese-fest that the TV show Buck Rogers in the 25th Century was, you gotta include Twiki (which should be Richard Masur’s face super-imposed on the robot’s)
Part of effective Photoshop jokes is you have some clue about the source material you’re parodying and since the Buck Rogers TV show is looked back on with great embarassment (by a lot of people and not just real sci-fi fans) this poster is hysterically funny but not in the way the pro union action UFS people intended. As if Howard & Aquino could save the day or SAG…NOT!
The ‘merger baby’ looks a lot like Rowan Atkinson…I suspect that while he’s a brilliant comedian and has a good sense of humor he wouldn’t find the use of his face on that kid very funny (besides it should be Carol Lombardini’s face on the tot…duh!)
It’s silly, it’s funny! The “aiming a gun” pose is an obvious genre cliche, in this case lifted from the “Buck Rogers” TV show. In fact, if Unite for Strength had Erin Gray, I’d vote for them.
Me thinks Rowan Atkinson should be entitled to a residual payment.
Oh, and Ken seems to be holding a “simple blaster” (in the words of Robbie the Robot to Dr, Morbius in “Forbidden Planet”). It would technically not be a gun, as it does not shoot a projectile. The blaster is a science fiction conceit that allows things to look futuristic. Perhaps it would have been better to put a light saber in his hand.
Don’t be afraid, Nikki. None of these “weapons” really exists. Unfortunately, Membership First does.
Will Gil Gerard, Erin Gray and Rowan Atkinson now sue these SAG factions for digitally manipulating their images without their consent?
So USAN /UFS ‘endorses’ this poster which portrays Amy Aquino and Ken Howard shooting at their opposition?
Notice how the blast from Ken’s GUN is right on Anne-Marie’s chest?
Is there MORE to this poster than meets the eye?
(A white male shooting a woman-of-color?)
Have UFS/ Howard / Aquino / USAN rejected this tasteless poster or do they think it’s “funny”?
(Notice how the M1st poster is all in good fun.)
NO GUNS. NO GUN BLASTS.
http://www.SolidarityAndGainsNOW.org
http://www.youtube.com/solidarityandgains
NOT PAID FOR WITH ANY SAG FUNDS
Only according to you, Erik, does USAN/UFS endorse this poster – even though they had noting to do with nor have they ‘endorsed’ it.
Not paid for with SAG funds?….how about SAGNOW!, paid for with M1st Funds?
Don Draper wouldn’t approve.
I denounce the mediocre use of Photoshop and the total lack of design sense in both of these posters.
It isn’t nasty, it’s campy.
I have to admit, the ugly-ass baby poster is much funnier…
Democracy is a wonderful thing and a creative Industry using technology to postulate pictures worth a thousand words. Flip-side, unfortunately though – simplifying existing complex and forthcoming member issues. Too bad, but every good and bad meal has some flavour and this exemplifies.
Issues and transparency count, representation all important.
If heating up such democratic debate is generated by these visual manifestations it is my hope that such attention motivates fence sitting members or those who just ‘tick the box’ / ‘blow their chad’.
I received a campaign mailing from Anne-Marie Johnson. While some may poo-poo her for this because Ken Howard’s violation of confidentiality was releasing the information less than 24 hours in advance, that amount of time is more than enough to affect votes in the midst of a SAG election in which balloting is going on every day.
Howard’s actions, IMHO, also betray his lack of respect for the guild he wishes to run, as well as possibly the law. This is FINANCIAL information he released early. I assure everyone, if this were the other way around Howard & Aquino and Vaughn and company would be screaming from the mountaintops and calling for people’s heads.
Text of the campaign lit from Ms. Johnson:
Dear SAG Hollywood Division Member:
Ken Howard, in a serious breach of confidentiality, attained and disseminated confidential SAG Pension and Health Plan information, purely for political gains, prior to its official distribution. Only SAG Pension & Health trustees and the plans’ administrator and staff were privy to this highly sensitive information. Mr. Howard is not a trustee.
In Mr. Howard’s email message sent out to Hollywood members on September 8th at 10:07 a.m. pst, sensitive and confidential plan adjustments, that were not yet posted on the official SAG P&H website, were released. Take 2,SAG’s P&H publication, was not mailed out to SAG members until the evening of the 8th. It has been confirmed by P&H staff that the information prematurely shared by Mr. Howard to our members, had not been posted anywhere prior to the evening of September 8, 2009.
Although MembershipFirst strongly advocates the release of information in a timely fashion, we believe that vital information such as the changes in our P&H plans, must be officially released, adhering to sanctioned guidelines.
As you may have read in the Take 2 2009 Summer edition, the trustees made painful financial and benefit changes in order to adjust to the many challenges facing the Screen Actors Guild plans. As with almost every institution in this country, including AFTRA, our pension and health plans took tremendous hits based on the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. A loss of almost $800 MILLION DOLLARS from investments, record breaking unemployment, the 100 day Writers Strike, the severe decline in movie production based on dwindling financing, the continued surge in reality programming and the loss of pilots to AFTRA has caused the trustees to re-adjust and re-evaluate.
U4S’s presidential candidate Ken Howard has implied that presidential candidate Anne-Marie Johnson, Secretary-Treasurer Connie Stevens and Membershipfirst board members are partially responsible for the critical changes in our plans due to our stance during the 2008 TV/Theatrical Negotiations. We see it differently. We were fighting hard to protect what we had and to secure revenue in areas that could generate millions for our employers. Sadly, there will be little to no contributions made to SAG’s P&H generated from these revenue streams.
Although THEY are placing blame, the 2009 “smart deal” Ken Howard, Amy Aquino, Ned Vaughn and U4S delivered to our membership will have a negative impact on SAG’s P&H plans:
-Loss of P&H contributions due to FREE 17/24 day exhibition windows from move-over of traditional broadcast programs to the Internet/New Media.
-Loss of P&H contributions from Original Product Made For New Media with budgets $15K per minute or less. (NON UNION WORK)
-Loss of P&H contributions due to ZERO residuals from Original Product Made For New Media with budgets $25K per minute or less.
-Loss of P&H contributions due to ZERO residuals for pre-1971 movies and pre-1974 television shows rerun on the Internet/New Media. And so on.
And remember, Ken Howard, Amy Aquino, Ned Vaughn and U4S enthusiastically ENDORSED this contract.
Ken Howard, Amy Aquino and U4S believe that a whole sale merger with AFTRA will solve most of our union woes, bringing SAG more leverage in 2011. No merger between SAG and AFTRA will happen prior to the contractually mandated early TV/Theatrical negotiations on Oct. 1, 2010.
Until we have successfully formed one union, representing all actor-performers and all scripted dramatic/comedic programing, SAG must protect its’ jurisdiction.
And unless all other AFTRA contracts, including the Net Code (i.e. Soap Operas) and all contracts covering broadcasters, disc jockys and recording artists, expire on June 30th 2011 along with our TV/Theatrical contract, those members will be obligated to continue working due to the No Strike Clause. They are completely DIFFERENT contracts.
And until we can resolve the questions and concerns regarding the combining of SAG’s P&H with AFTRA’s H&R, U4S’s rallying cry for “MERGER” is extremely premature.
The following are examples of the differences in our respective plans: Even with the new changes in SAG’s P&H Plan, SAG’s Plan is different than AFTRA’s. (Take note that AFTRA lowered its Plans rates well before SAG. Is MembershipFirst responsible for that TOO?)
-SAG’s pension accrual rate, as of 1/2010, will be 2% of earnings with an annual earnings cap of $225,000 per EMPLOYER. AFTRA’s pension accrual rate is around 1% of earnings with an annual earnings cap of $200,000 per MEMBER.
-SAG’s new Plan I health quarterly premium will be $249 for the member and covering all immediate family members. AFTRA’s premiums start at $330.00 per quarter for the individual member ONLY and up to $633 per quarter for a family of four.
-SAG’s early retirement penalty is 3% per year. AFTRA’s early retirement penalty is 6% per year.
If there were to be blending of our respective plans there would have to be an averaging out of SAG’s terms with AFTRA’s terms, potentially resulting in diminished benefits for SAG participants. (SAG employee retirement accrual rate will remain at 3.5%)
Real leverage is SAG and AFTRA adhering to Phase I, jointly negotiating the 2011 TV/Theatrical Contract: speaking in one voice to protect and build on what so many have fought and sacrificed for. MembershipFirst believes this can happen. We believe MEMBERS want this to happen.
MemberhshipFirst and U4S agree on one major issue: SAG work should remain SAG work. When our traditional work moves over to AFTRA, SAG actors are disadvantaged. Especially in the area of P&H.
-MembershipFirst has a plan. Please go to membershipfirst.com to read and view our plans for the future.
We realize that you have been inundated with campaign email messages. There is so much information to share yet limited ways to share it. This is a defining moment for SAG members. With this election we will determine the direction and the future of our union. As National Board Candidate Martin Sheen said, “We can choose the path of least resistance with management compliance or we can choose MembershipFirst and reunite with the spirit of those brave SAG founders and fight to regain and protect the wages, residuals and working conditions for which they fought so long and hard and gave so much to secure.”
Secretary-Treasurer Connie Stevens, the 33 board candidates on the Membershipfirst slate and Presidential candidate Anne-Marie Johnson would appreciate your support. Please VOTE.
Thank you.
Membershipfirst
Neither poster is actually funny, unless it was YOUR friend with Photoshops who did it.