Ken Howard & Amy Aquino Lead UFS Slate

COMMENTS (6)

• This is outstanding news! Unite for Strength has led the way in Los Angeles to finally merging SAG and AFTRA, and I will be happily voting for Ken Howard, Amy Aquino, Ned Vaughn, Tony Shalhoub and their entire group. Interesting to see that many of those who have historically opposed merger are not on the ballot. Maybe they’ve finally come around.

  At this point, anyone who opposes merger really ought to have his head inspected.

  Comment by Union Democracy in Action — Thursday August 4, 2011 @ 5:31pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Hurry up guys, I need merger! I’m losing my health insurance because all my income is now from AFTRA shows! And AFTRA insurance sucks – doesn’t pay for my kids. Hurry up U4S, and thank you so much for your service, and for enduring the campaign of lies that almost ruined us. And to the folks who spread disinformation and scuttled merger last time it came around? I have nothing to say that can be printed in a family newspaper. oh, wait, this is nikke’s site – okay, fuck you, ignoramuses and liars. You cost those of us who actually work the contract a fortune.

  Comment by Evo — Thursday August 4, 2011 @ 9:15pm PDT  Reply to this post

  • Hate to burst your ignorant bubble Evo, but your contributions will continue to be split for quite some time, even if merger passes. First, the jointly negotiated tv/theatrical contract doesn’t expire until July 2014, so all shows covered under that agreement will continue to be covered by the union that brought it to the dance (more splitting). AFTRA’s largest contract, the Net Code, won’t be renegotiated until early to mid 2012, way before a merger plan is agreed to and sent out to the membership. And that’ll be an AFTRA only contract, having nothing to do with the new union or SAG, which won’t expire until 2015 (more splitting)
    All involved have admitted that the pension and health plans of both union won’t be merged at the same time the unions are. It could take another 1 or 2 in order to get all that worked out. So, let’s just safely say that your benefits will continue to be split for the next 3 years (more splitting). And don’t forget, they’ll have to create a new pension and health plan for the new union. So, instead of just two plans, there will be three that will need to be funded for a few years until the two traditional plans are dissolved (more splitting). So, you’ll be covered by the “AFTRA insurance that sucks” for a few more years. It’ll continue not to pay for your kids. And the pleads for “hurrying it up” ain’t going to help you. UFS ain’t going to help getting your kids covered. Those “Ignoramuses” your railing against tried to warn the membership back in 2007. Don’t blame the messenger. AFTRA cut its rates to attract work for AFTRA. They ignore requests to file claims against shitty employers everyday. They made a deal with agents (and received a payment of $500k and a ton of scripted shows) allowing them to not only perform as agents, but to produce also. Can you say, “conflict of interest”? Did you know that AFTRA allows its members to work non union? People like Larry King, Brian Williams, Keith Oberman, etc… these AFTRA members earn multi million dollar contracts yet none of it is union work. Therefore the millions they and many others make are not tagged for dues or any contributions to AFTRA’s health and retirement. MILLIONS!!!! Ergo, AFTRA had to go after SAG shit in order to struggle to remain solvent. So, “they are ignoramuses and liars’? Can’t wait to see your posts after merger takes place and your kids still aren’t being covered, you’re not qualifying for any retirement credit, the new union has absolutely no “leverage” at the negotiating table, having to give up more residuals in order to pay for a new pension and health plan (do some research and learn what SAG had to give up in the 60′s in order to have the plans we have now) and your contributions are being split worse than they were before. But it appears you don’t really care about the truth. You just want to bitch and moan. Good luck with that.

    Comment by union advocate — Thursday August 4, 2011 @ 10:44pm PDT  Reply to this post

• Ever since the lying sacks of shit that are UFS sabotaged and seized control of SAG my fortunes as an actor have steadily declined. I will not vote for these scoundrels and I will vote against the merger with the bloodsuckers at AFTRA. Merging with AFTRA will be the worst thing for the rank and file SAG actors ever. Not one good thing has happened for SAG members since Aquino, Howard, Vaughn, and the other fucking pieces of shit that comprise their faction came on the scene. Under Rosenberg and Johnson, we were looking to improve DVD residuals, get our foot in the door on Internet and get some more gas money for background. Now what do we have because of UFS? The loss of all Television work, travel Rollbacks and endless spin and bullshit.

  Comment by Simon — Friday August 5, 2011 @ 12:09am PDT  Reply to this post

• You’re losing your health insurance because all of your work is AFTRA and its insurance is worse than SAG’s insurance — so you want to merge because you assume doing so will grant you better insurance? Okay, but… where do you get the idea that the end result of a merger will be everyone gaining SAG-level insurance? Have you considered that the health benefits after a merger might be closer to the kind you’re lamenting here?

  I mean, I’m all for realistic optimism, but we’re talking business here. What concrete information do you have regarding a proposed merger’s effect on SAG members’ benefits? How does the proposed merger ensure that SAG members would receive what they’ve already earned the right to claim? What plans are there to ensure that benefits don’t fall to AFTRA-level for everyone? In short, why do you assume that the end result of a merger would be better benefits for all when the guy leading the so-called charge is known for giving the AMPTP pretty much whatever it wants? We all know that, given a choice, producers would elect to offer AFTRA-style benefits every time.

  I’ve seen people here ask these same kinds of questions every time the pro-merger banner is waved, and frankly I’ve never seen a single pro-merger commentor actually have the courage to tackle those questions. And that’s a huge red flag for anyone who thinks this thing through.

  Some AFTRA members seem to want it both ways. They want both the freedom to undercut the better, more beneficial union — SAG, run by actual actors with actual acting credits — by working non-union, and the right to the hard-won victories SAG has maintained despite this same undercutting. But here’s the thing: while merger might be beneficial to all, YOU JUST DON’T KNOW, BECAUSE THE UFS PEOPLE WON’T SHARE THEIR PLAN!

  So you’re basically hoping a pro-producer contingent made up of non-acting “actors” understands and has the members’ best interests at heart. But you, and virtually every pro-merger poster here, can’t actually explain how the merger would effect benefits already earned and in effect.

  Seems a little insubstantial to put all one’s hopes into, doesn’t it?

  Comment by dEvolution? — Friday August 5, 2011 @ 7:56am PDT  Reply to this post

• I used to be against merger mainly because I wanted an Actor’s only Union. But, the Fact is most recent TV pilots were mostly AFTRA and SAG lost a lot of jobs. Before we start to worry about our Health/Pension plans we need to make sure we do not lose TV film work to AFTRA otherwise we wont have enough work through SAG to pay for our insurance. Lets face it… Actors just dont have the leverage we used to enjoy in the past. Without merger we will lose whatever little we have left. I still don’t like the idea of merger but tell me how else do we safeguard our interests and I will support it. Finding faults in the merger plans and calling names is easy. But whats the alternative? An actor

  Comment by IamPro Merger — Monday August 8, 2011 @ 3:29pm PDT  Reply to this post