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A union that doesn’t officially exist anymore filed motions today going through the required rules of procedure and attempting to dismiss a lawsuit that it says is dead – and for that the defunct SAG wants prominent anti-SAG-AFTRA merger advocates such as Martin Sheen, Ed Harris and Diane Ladd to pay “attorneys’ fees and costs incurred by this action.” They also want U.S. District Court Judge James Otero to grant “such other and further relief as the Court may deem just and proper.”
In two separate court required answers (Read them here and here) to the lawsuit filed in February to stop a March 30 members vote on the merging of SAG and AFTRA as one union, the “Screen Actors Guild, a dissolved corporation” and individual defendants claimed the primary issue raised by anti-merger forces as irrelevant because “on March 28, 2012, this court refused to block the merger vote, and that 82% of the SAG members who cast ballots voted in favor of the merger.”
The merger was approved by 81.9% of SAG members and 86.1% of AFTRA members in the returned ballot on March 30, immediately creating the new SAG-AFTRA union. The Current SAG-AFTRA co-president Ken Howard, co-secretary-treasurer Amy Aquino and executive VP Ned Vaughn, VPs Mike Hodge and David Hartley-Margolin and NED David White filed an almost replicate document, also claiming that anti-merger worries about “alleged possible future harm” to SAG members Health and Pensions Plans are “entirely speculative, unrealized, not imminent…” Both answers were filed the same day news broke that controversial SAG Pension and Health plans CEO Bruce Dow announced he was “retiring” amidst a civil lawsuit, allegations of wrongdoing and diverted funds. Both answers state that one of the reasons the lawsuit by the ant-merger advocates should be dismissed is to “not unreasonably intrude in SAG’s internal affairs.”
The “dissolved” SAG is represented by Robert Bush of Glendale firm Bush Gottlieb Singer Lopez Kohanski Adelstein & Dickinson. Peter Nussbaum of San Francisco firm Altshuler Berzon represents the individual defendants.
Deadline's Dominic Patten - tip him here.
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Anyone isnt on Team Sheen is either corrupt or ignorant.
Anyone who says that those who opposed merger are corrupt or ignorant is a narrow minded bigot. We have still seen no ballots or actual physical proof to such an alledged landslide. All we have is a website and a lot of bragging pro merger people. Anyone who knows anything knows you can post anything on a website. It does not make it official. Professional politicans have been hacked for millions of dollars because people donated money to websites they thought represented that politician.
I am sick and tired of the mergerite fools insulting the integrity of those who stood up against this horrible merger. Anyone who claims to be a unionist and attacks those who opposed this merger is a hypocrite a fake a front and a phony! Now run and tell that.
As a SAG-AFTRA member, I’d fully support everyone named in this suit (Martin Sheen, Ed Harris, Diane Ladd) should they run for office on the SAG-AFTRA board. We need leaders like them now.
Yeah….good luck with that. Mr. Sheen and Co. were within their rights to do precisely what they did. They believed in it, and went by the rules honestly. They should be put in charge of the new organization NOW!
Yes, they should be put in charge. God, i wish they would start running for office now.
It smelled before the so-called merger and now it stinks!
Dear Dissolved SAG:
This frivolous lawsuit…
Shame on you for squandering my union dues in order to sue the few members who were trying to help SAG and AFTRA members.
I’ve also been frustrated with you for a long time for the way you used my dues for your pro merger campaign…I didnt need Martin Sheen to tell me how wrong that was. It was obvious.
SAG did not sue the members. The members sued SAG.
This shit is hilarious.
So, this is how the new SAG-AFTRA union is going to treat members who disagree with it! Well, you were warned! But, that seems the to be the nature of things now. Retaliate! Retaliate! Retaliate! is today’s mantra. The SAGAFTRA STATE now rules and you will obey!
Amazing, this sham SAG-SAftra are now tryinbg to villify Team Sheen–the guys and gals who did the right thing. They can blow all the money trying to sue them that SAG residuals used to bring.
How can a corporation that no longer exists take any legal action at all?
Martin Sheen is one of the most honorable men I’ve known. He’s put more sweat and heart into his work, and his union (and his citizenship, for that matter), than most ever have, or will. It’s absolutely shameful that the union I belong to would take action such as this.
What the roughly 10,050 SAG members who voted NO on this merger already knew from reading the merger documents is spelled out in easier-to-understand language from SAG’s own attorneys explaining how it stands today. Which is to say, when it comes to qualifying for P&H on April 25, 2012, as a result of the merger it may be “more difficult.”
“…this answering Defendant admits that actors and others who were members of SAG or of AFTRA or are members of SAG-AFTRA often may be put in a difficult situation regarding the existing multiemployer pension and health plans since their earnings are often split between the two plans and it may therefore be more difficult to qualify for the benefits.”
the above mentioned block quote is saying why the merger is good, no longer will you make just under the minimum to get health care in both SAG and AFTRA type pay and not get health care, by merging the unions… one contract to rule them all, one pot to put the money into people that usually made not enough in either union seperately but enough when a combined will now be able to get insurance, this isnt going to happen anytime soon because we still have to wait for the old SAG and AFTRA contracts to run their course until we can negotiate anew but the fact that they did not properly research how penisons etc will play out and just blasted the media with the propoganda of SAGAFTRANOW is a joke. i voted no. and i wait and hope that the new leadership does their best.
You losers are sad. I’ve known and worked with Martin for almost 25 years. He’s a great person but not infallible. I agree with the defunct SAG lawsuit in both principle and reality. You people (whom I’m sure became SAG originally by three background work vouchers to shut your holes and go back to your day jobs as waiters).
Nice unity and reconciliation gesture. Take cues from Scientology much?
Bush Gottlieb Singer Lopez Kohanski Adelstein & Dickinson are IATSE-appointed legal handlers for several IATSE Locals.
As a long-time SAG member I just received my first SAG-AFTRA dues bill with an additional fee marked, “Other Fees Owed” and a charge of $45 with no explanation.
I called SAG-AFTRA who said it’s a fee AFTRA assessed all its members in 2003 and 2004 when AFTRA “was not doing too well,” as if that should make perfect sense to me.
It doesn’t make perfect sense to me. But then I’m with Martin Sheen and the other 18% that voted no on the merger proposal because none of it made sense.
Me too. Except mine was is close to 200. The nerve!
Got my dues bill. It quoted I earned 441,000 under Aftra. HUH. I know I reported my earrings to be$ 441.00
What a disgrace! What fucking hubris!
I am ashamed to be a member of this union.
The “alleged future harm to SAG P&H? Doesn’t exist,” so says Howard, VAUGHN, White, Aquino, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, so they want the money WE, SAG dues payers, paid THEIR lawyers, to stop us, from stopping THEM, from destroying The Screen Actors Guild . Killing it dead. Which they did.
AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!
I think that sums it up. And, lest any members think SAG-AFTRA bears any resemblance to SAG? No, it doesn’t. SAG was destroyed, by these people, their compatriots in AFTRA, and a large group of dipshits who voted “yes.” It is an entirely new corporation, re-incorporated in Delaware (wink-wink!) with a decidedly, AFTRA-centric constitution, far less democracy (direct membership vote) and a decided interest in NEVER USING STRIKE AS A NEGOTIATION LEVERAGE TOOL (our only one…) EVER AGAIN! The A-list? Have been, um, excused, from supporting the “rank and file,” from here on out. They have big lives, don’t forget. Big projects in Big pipelines, Big overheads, Big expenses, so the needs of little teeny-tiny, rank and file nobodies, is not something they will ever again have to temporarily delay their Bigness for, ever again.
There goes our only leverage. The only leverage SAG ever had, that got us every single benefit we gained, since 1933, y strike or threat of strike, backed up by the A-list supporting the rest of the union (referred to these days as the “99%”)
Sorry, the truth is a bitch. SAG P&H, as will come out in the Craig Simmons case, is in deep, deep shit. David White and Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, NED, and co-NED and general counsel, respectively, in a supreme conflict of interest, knew that. Know that. They are also trustees of SAG P&H.
GO FIGURE!
How could that conflict of interest be allowed? Two of the principal SAG power brokers in the merger, were, and are, entirely aware of the financial details of SAG P&H?
So was Robert Carlson, the only SAG trustee with a conscience, willing to keep it real, and say, basically, “The SAG P&H program is not going to fare well in this merger. To put it mildly.”
Capital offense. “Off with his head!” says the SAG Hollywood National Board, led by Ned Vaughn, who, oddly, still hasn’t been really been elected to much of anything, but, somehow, holds the main power position in SAG-AFTRA, “Executive Vice President!”
Amy Brennemann stepped down from the Hollywood National Board, Ned Vaughn “stepped in,” as her replacement, then, Ned becomes 1st VP of SAG, not through direct vote, then, Executive Vice President of SAG-AFTRA, not by direct membership vote. Now THAT is a rapid rise to power!
The Craig Simmons suit is going to reveal much of what is actually going on within SAG PPHP. From what I have heard, it is not good, to put it mildly.
David White and Duncan Crabtree-Ireland knew, and know, the details of the actual numbers. Had an actuarial pre-merger study been done, crunching the actual, you know, numbers, there would not have been a merger. Period. That’s why it wasn’t done, obviously. Why would you NOT give SAG members ALL the information you possibly could, while spending THEIR 5 million dollars in dues money to push merger on THEM?
Bruce Dow took a “medical leave” the second the shit hit the fan on SAG PHHP. Now, he is “retiring” while sucking down serious bucks as a “consultant” for a good long while yet. Come on. This whole thing is an ass-covering sham, with illegalities out the ying-yang.
Judge Otero didn’t want to interfere in an ongoing “referendum” (it wasn’t a “vote,” it was a “referendum!”) because he went with judicial instinct and precedent, not to interfere in ongoing union referendums (votes) or internal union politics, short of a slam-dunk case with proof positive of actual illegalities and corruption.
The Casselman suit was too little too late (Sheen v SAG). They needed to bring evidence of ILLEGALITY to the courtroom WEEKS before the vote was even issued. “Referendum,” sorry.
They didn’t. We lost, merger won. But the underlying facts will never change, and the wrong-headedness of the merger will (already is, really) come to light. There is no going back now, however.
Sheen v SAG folded up its tent, inexplicably, even though Otero gave Casselman the right to “discovery and deposition.” When the plaintiffs didn’t vote to continue, because they didn’t have any money, and Casselman needed to be paid, the last chance to get Howard, Vaughn Aquino, DCI, and White under oath, died. What a massive mistake. And what a complete failure by the plaintiffs as a whole to understand they needed to follow through, because ONLY if they got these guys under oath, was there the remotest possibility of actually ending up back in front of Judge Otero to say “well, you ruled not to stop the referendum (vote). Now? Look at these depositions! Do you STILL think that was the right decision?”
The fact is “split earnings and shared jurisdiction” were INVENTED issues, which, although present before UFS, EXPLODED the DAY UFS took over SAG.
TV, all “scripted programming for television,” SAG jurisdiction by NLRB rule, FOR DECADES, all went to AFTRA, and David White, SAG NED, did NOTHING to stop the theft of clear SAG jurisdiction.
How do you explain that? Was that sheer… coincidence? Or, a conscious political strategy, enacted by pro-merger forces within SAG, and within AFTRA, to make THIS merger THE merger that cleared the bar and succeeded? Come on. Of course it was. The fact that SAG had 100% of movies and 95% of “all scripted programming for television” until practically the DAY UFS took over, says it all.
The plan is to continue to drain SAG P&H, until it reaches the AFTRA H&R level, then, merge the plans, and then, the letters go out, “DEAR SAG BENEFICIARY. WATCH OUT! BENEFIT DROP! EPIC FAIL! FUCK YOU! ALL THE BEST – FROM SHAFTRA BABY! YEEEEAHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!
Matt Mulhern
You put all the facts in a nutshell. You hit the tac on the head in your explanation. The path that should have been taken is one of a more populist nature with grassroots organizing and it should have began much earlier. This new union is corrupt no doubt about it for all the reasons you stated and much more. Crabtree and White were hired to protect the interests of SAG not destroy it from within which is what they did along with some collaboration from some opportunistic self serving members like Ned Vaughn, Amy Aquino, Maureen Donnelly, and most of that New York cabal! It will take someone with deep and I mean deep pockets to reverse this situation.
The plaintiffs ran out of money plain and simple. The judge who was a Bush appointee did not want to be labeled a judicial activist by siding with some union members instead of corporate management. He was a Bush appointee and so his ruling was not a surrise. He simply put up enough legal road blocks to exhaust the plaintiffs of all their money. The defendants in this case have all our dues money to use and then some from the producers.
Its a sad state of affairs for actors and performers period in this country now. This new formula is designed for the 1% to reap most of the benefits. This is the way the country is goiong. What do you expect from a corporate lawyer and a former prosecutor who is used to prosecuting poor and working class people? Some union leaders we got. WE NEED A MIRICLE TO REVERSE THIS SITUATION!
I’ve heard that SAG-AFTRA has begun shaking down SAG members for back AFTRA dues – even if they weren’t AFTRA members.
Get real David white and company. You are corrupt. Dow is corrupt. Asner and Sheen have more character in their pinkie fingers than you will ever possess in a lifetime.
23 Comments, 17 of them from Mulhern and his sock puppets.
It’s over, loser.
You couldn’t recognize what’s best for the members yourself, and you couldn’t stop the membership from doing what is best for all the members.
So all you do now is try to rehash your fiction about the 1950s, which just doesn’t matter any more.
BTW, it’s the SAG health plan that’s in trouble, not the AFTRA plan. The reason it’s in trouble is that you and your dopey crew killed our business in 2008.
And AFTRA wasn’t in trouble in 2003 or 2004.
So spin your lies.
But we know the truth.
Number 24
At a certain point, as all “Big Lies” do, your alternate reality is going to give way to a crushing flow of facts.
First – 17 sock puppets? Fuck you, on their behalf. They speak for themselves. And my comment is one, under my name “number 24.” (1 asshole – you, plus 23 assholes – you)
One of the things you will find is AFTRA makes SAG shenanigans look like a Thursday poker game at the Elks Club. Corrupt? Dumb? Illegalities? Whooooo baby! AFTRA wrote the book!
AFTRA wrote the fucking book.
So, what IS “best for actors” numbah 24?
A fair deal in new media? YOU will never get that, because YOU were an unmitigated pussy when YOU needed to step up and get that, in 2008. Rosenberg and Allen were trying to explain to YOU, sieve-head, that YOU, due to the precedent of Home-video/DVD and Cable, needed to get the VASTLY more important “new media” part right THE FIRST ITME. YOU fucked that up.
“All scripted programming for television” went to AFTRA almost ENTIRELY on YOUR watch, shit-bag. No revisionist history allowed, fact-free-fuck-tard.
It was a HUSTLE that YOUR golden boy Ned Vaughn cooked up to infuriate a DUMB membership that wasn’t paying attention to the FACTS.
Ned Vaughn had the wisdom to understand “Do NOT underestimate the stupidity of these people. Do OUTRAGEOUS things, then BLAME OUR PREDECESSORS, WHILE WE ACTUALLY DESTROY SAG!
WE have ALL the money, THEIR money, WE have ALL the tools of communication, WE have the lawyers, WE will TELL these dumb bastards what to think, then kick them in the ass all the way to the vote.”
And they pulled it off. Politically? Kudos. Morally? Fuck you.
Rosenberg was trying to “NOT give away clip consent, NOT give away product placement protections, do NOT give away force majeure – and no matter WHAT ELSE YOU DO – do NOT fuck up by NOT getting a fair deal in new media that we can then negotiate forward from.”
Hey Numbah 24? How do you negotiate FORWARD from “no minimums and free windows leading to the end of residuals?”
You don’t.
Now, some sort of a percentage deal, gotten through strike if necessary? THAT, you can then negotiate forward from. “What percentage is right, a percentage of exactly what, how do we track it, etc., etc., etc.”
But the producers knew the merger-zombies in SAG, with AFTRA, and the sea of SAG sieve-heads had NO IDEA WHAT WAS GOING ON. They just WANTED A CONTRACT!!!
Well they got one. THE WORST TV-THEATRICAL CONTRACT IN SAG HISTORY!!!!!!
The producers knew it meant BILLIONS to hold the line on new media. And they ended up not even really breathing hard, because YOU ARE A JELLYFISH.
Oh Numbah 24, the frenzied writhing that comes with vindication of your enemies by later revealed truth.
LOL! Aftra was in trouble. WE ALL PAID extra dues because of it. That is a fact.
Number 24,
I think you may have been referring to my comment here in this DHD thread when you wrote “And AFTRA wasn’t in trouble in 2003 or 2004″ then went on to accuse, me, I think, of spinning lies.
I was simply passing on what the SAG-AFTRA office told me when I called inquiring about the “Other Fees Owed” on my dues bill. I have no idea how AFTRA was doing in 2003 or 2004. I was not an AFTRA member. Although I have been a working SAG member since 1992–so 20 years.
The notion that AFTRA was in trouble in 2003 & 2004 came to me from the SAG-AFTRA Cashier’s Office as I noted in my comment. That office today said to me, and I quote, “That’s a fee AFTRA charged all it’s members in 2003 and 2004 when AFTRA was not doing well. So now you owe that to AFTRA.” If you believe that is a lie they told me and that angers you, I don’t know what to say. But I can’t take credit for the information. And, as I said in my comment above, it was told to me as if it should make perfect sense. Then, above, I noted it made no sense to me.
I am not accustomed to paying charges on a bill that seem to be arbitrary or can’t be substantiated. I just don’t have the luxury of large amounts of money at my disposal to hand out to everyone who asks. It would appear you don’t suffer financial concerns which must be a comfortable place to be. , But I would like to say in my defense I have been working hard.
As for the mysterious “other fees owed” on my bill, I am extremely frustrated that in 3 follow up calls to the call I mentioned earlier, SAG-AFTRA has not been able to pin-point what the charge is for, but suggests “It’s just a one-time fee. So once you pay it, you won’t be charged again.” To me, that’s an interesting non-answer.
And to frustrate me more, from what I gather from your seemingly vast knowledge I may have been told a lie by SAG-AFTRA in that you say AFTRA was doing great in 2003 & 2004. Thanks for that heads up.
I suppose, by your logic, Number 24, I should just have faith and pay the charge without knowing what it’s for, in the same way it would appear you cast your vote in favor of the merger. Because the one thing I do know for sure is the merger as it was presented to us had absolutely no facts about how it might or might not help the membership. So your vote in favor of the merger had to be made purely on faith.
I encourage you to do whatever suits you best.
But, getting back to your comments referring to me, I do want to add; with my children I discourage calling others “liars” simply because they have a differing opinion , and I discourage name calling even if they are seemingly innocuous names like “sock puppets.” I tell them throwing an insult in a disagreement may make them feel good for the moment, but in the long run they are denying themselves the opportunity to learn more about something or someone they clearly don’t fully understand. And being a part of a community requires understanding.
If I had some way to get in touch with your own mother, I’d certainly advise her to teach you the same lesson.
#24
Is that your number in the Nut ward or what. What Matt Mulhern stated is the truth. All you have to do is look at the mood of this country and you will see the same practice going on in other areas fool! Take your meds and shut the Hell up!
“They can’t do that!”, was the response I got recently from a member who voted “yes” and is NOW learning the details of merger(ie. Delaware, no direct vote, etc.)
“Oh, yes they can…they couldn’t before…but, now they can. Did you read the proposal or do any research?”, I asked.
His response”No”.
We don’t deserve S.A.G.! It died of neglect.
And to all those “actors” that are just now waking up and wanna gripe…F.U. for real. Including, Clooney, Hanks, the cast of The Office etc. F.U. guys! Now move aside and make way for actors that stand for something other than corporations. You’re salesmen…not actors. And now we all know it.
R.I.P. S.A.G.
The attorneys have found a new tit to suck on and it’s the membership! We lose, they get paid big bucks! Thanks a lot boys’n'girls! You should have done your homework. We just got suckered!
SAG AFTRA needs to stop funneling members’ money to the AFL-CIO. This organization does NOTHING for the members of SAG AFTRA, and we pay them a huge amount for the dubious privilege.
I never knew how many difficulties existed in the unions till I became a member and found out. Most actors are amiable veteran and youth. Our experience of the changes going on are mixed. I can only wish the membership had the knowledge as to not be influenced by media advertisement and were given to using some old sense. If Martin Sheen runs for president of the new guild if that is possible I will endorse him.