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Today, SAG responded to the 8 studio and network moguls' ad placed in the Los Angeles Times this morning. (See my previous, Hollywood CEOS To SAG: We Tell You What The Deal Is, Not Other Way Around.) UPDATE: AMPTP gives SAG an economic reality lecture. First, here's SAG:
Los Angeles, CA (December 01, 2008) - Today’s open letter, full-page ad from the eight entertainment industry moguls is confirmation of their continued refusal to bargain with Screen Actors Guild.
In an effort to push negotiations forward in the face of AMPTP stonewalling, we asked two of the CEO’s who signed this letter to get involved in the talks in September. They refused. We wish they had taken us up on our offer. It better serves the industry to negotiate than to buy and respond to $100,000 newspaper ads.
We are still waiting for the CEO’s or their AMPTP negotiators to make a good faith effort at bargaining with us. Agreements with other guilds and unions can’t dictate actors’ terms just because they are part of a pattern set by the DGA. Actors issues are different and must be heard and addressed.
We are still waiting for our turn. We want exactly what the DGA got – the chance to negotiate an agreement that addresses the needs of our members. No other guild or union can negotiate a pattern deal that fits the industry and SAG members, any more than ABC can negotiate license fees for NBC. No one has our proxy.
Our issues are different – not better, but different and we deserve to have our unique issues and very valid concerns resolved in negotiation. Agreeing to fairly negotiate the unique needs of actors would mean that the CEO’s are honorably engaging in the negotiations process rather than continuing to stonewall.
Our message to the CEOs is this, “Gentlemen, please understand, the pattern does not fit. Now that you have at least acknowledged our effort to achieve a fair contract for actors, perhaps you would be willing to sit down with our negotiating committee and resolve our issues?”
---
About 5 minutes later, the AMPTP responded:
"SAG's press release proves that SAG is now officially out of touch with reality. The Producers negotiated with SAG for 46 days - and over that entire time SAG failed to justify why it deserves a better deal than the six other agreements negotiated so far this year. On a day when the United States was officially declared to be in a recession, when Governor Schwarzenegger declared a fiscal emergency for California, and when the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 680 points, SAG continues to demand more and better than everyone else. Unfortunately, the chasm between reality and SAG seems to widen by the day."
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These back and forth press releases are about as exciting as Rosie Live. Send out the strike authorization, SAG, and let your members decide if they want any future in this business. The AMPTP has no intention of bargaining in good faith unless your members grow a pair. You already blew it by letting AFTRA have the upper hand. Your future as a union depends on what happens now – most of which has nothing to do with anything that goes on at 5757 Wilshire – except perhaps on the 9th floor.
More and better? That’s a laugh.
Without actors there is NO product. There’s no resells, DVDs, tapes, trinkets, toys, trading cards, clothing lines, etc etc
As much as the construction workers are important, the below the line people are critical to the production, the actors are the FACE of the production. And you reuse their faces to keep selling the product.
So, yes, it does mean a different deal for them. And you’re just trying to drive a wedge between SAG and the other guilds.
If the other guilds buy this crap, then shame on them. Without the actors there is no film industry.
Quit trying to divide and conquer. If the actors strike you lose. (And so do all of us!)
You might be holding all the chips, but the actors are holding all the cards. So what’s it going to be?
per SAG: Agreements with other guilds and unions can’t dictate actors’ terms just because they are part of a pattern set by the DGA.
If only the WGA leadership had understood same last January.
Fucking DGA.
Who is the A-hole that writes the AMPTP’s press releases?
Talk about pouring gasoline on a fire… Are they trying to shut the town down?
After that comment I’m voting for the strike authorization.
SAG just spelled it out; They don’t want *more* than the other unions. Actor have *different* needs than writers and directors. Their work patterns and compensation are not the same as writers and directors. Get it strait AMPTP.
Zzzzzzzzzzz- Agreed. Send out the authorization for a strike and restart the negotiations (and just meet halfway and call it a day).
helenofpeel – “Without the actors there is no film industry”? True, but there are a lot of critical players in making a film. And, not to get technical, but isn’t it “Without the SAG actors there is no US film industry”. Seriously, would a strike result in more films being made overseas? I agree actors have some leverage and should use, but let’s not get too carried away. Negotiate a fair deal and get back to work.
46 days of negotiation and the only words spoken to the SAG Negotiators was “no”, “we reject”, “we want to experiment, but we don’t want to pay or share”, etc.
In fact there was not one proposal in SAG’s proposed contract that the AMPTP accepted, not one.
On the 46th day, as they were on the first day, they were trying to turn back the clock to 1937.
As the Russians said to the Nazis in the freezing winter at Leningrad, “Not one step back!”
When I’m looking for the opinions of petulant, projectionist, white male fossils, I’ll turn to the pasty clown party that signed that letter.
If you’re going to accuse SAG of being out of touch, by all means, place an ad in a dying medium that most people in your targeted audience won’t see.
The red herrings in the AMPTP’s response were just…………predictable. They should have addressed the situation in Mumbai just to REALLY make their point and/or the scores from the losing NFL teams on Sunday as the real reason for SAG to take their offer.
Nikki keeps getting the wrong press releases…something really must be done about this
“SAG’s press release proves that SAG is now officially out of touch with our delusional definition of ‘reality’ (a concept that is utterly foreign to us though it sorta sounds cool…we think it’s like beachfront condos, right?). The Producers (meaning the executives running the conglomerates who are not to be confused with the Mel Brooks films and Broadway show of the same name none, of which we understood nor did we find them funny although we dug the sexy blonde Scandinavian chick in each of these and would like to hire them on as personal assistants) spent 46 days unfruitful days with SAG (days where we could have been out playing golf or buying more vacation homes or investing in our bankster friends’s genius financial schemes) trying to get SAG to see reality as we see it (for 46 damn days SAG kept saying that our reality was ’skewed’ and generally kept us from missing out on idle rich people fun with their endless talk of getting a ‘fair deal’ which makes us grumpy) – and over that entire time SAG failed to justify why we deserve to be treated so meanly and rudely while the six other unions we conned or coerced into negotiating agreements agreements so far this year went complacently along with our hallucinations. Except for that WGA and new media residuals thing (but fear not because the same computers that our bankster friends used to devise their ‘can’t lose’ investments we are using to show that we make zero dollars in new media as far as those pesky writers are concerned although the shareholders will see numbers that show that there’s a freaking limitless goldmine online). And those pesky IATSE members who are questioning our not yet concluded deal will also be dealt with (the peons, er, crews are mad that they have to work 25% more to get health insurance plus 35 cent an hour raises for the next three years, the ingrates!) On a day when the United States was officially declared to be in a recession (never mind that for many people who aren’t rich like us their wages have been stagnant or declining for the prior 34 years), when Governor Schwarzenegger declared a fiscal emergency for California (which we partially contributed to by not settling with the WGA sooner back in 2007 and also with our dubious means for financing our companies but we’re hoping you’re not paying close attention as you read this press release), and when the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 680 points (we’re not sure what this last bit means but our investment banker friends tell us that it’s bad and that we should blame anyone in a labor union for it be it the UAW, or IATSE, or the WGA or SAG), SAG continues to demand more and better than everyone else (in other words they want some of what we have and we don’t think they too should have the right to be so grabby–that right is ours alone and we’ll fight them to the death of our companies to keep it as exclusively ours). Unfortunately, the chasm between our reality and SAG seems to widen by the day and while we know we’re falling down into it, we expect to land softly on the backs of the peons, er union workers we’ve already thrown down into its darkest depths to cushion our fall via our ‘groundbreaking’ deals (and our only regret is that there’s no bus at the bottom to additionally run the workers over, the thankless whiners).”
to Helen,
“You might be holding all the chips, but the actors are holding all the cards.”
Right on Sister right on! Well played.
Who has the AMPTP hired to write this pithy, hollow propagandist drivel?
If they had “played their cards right” and not pissed off the WGA by recently reneging on the deal they made with them, they might of gotten an actual writer to show them how to spin it to “look like” they are showing a hint of actual belief in their own cause.
As it stands, my 7 year old could see through their badly written insincerity .
AMPTP, or whatever the hell they call themselves, had all the shills from the L.A. Times taking shots at the actors in concert with that stoogie ad that they ran. Ouch guys, that really put us in our place.You succeeded in getting more votes in favor of authorization.Hey, scribes for The Times. Strike or no strike the actors have more job security than you have with Tribune. You look foolish.
The AMPTP writes, “On a day when the United States was officially declared to be in a recession, when Governor Schwarzenegger declared a fiscal emergency for California, and when the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 680 points, SAG continues to demand more and better than everyone else.”
Precisely the time to authorize a strike, when the Dow is down. No better time to convince the stockholders we need to keep the biz up and running than when they are hurting too.
C’mon AMPTP, the timing couldn’t be BETTER for a strike.
And I’m still not saying we WANT to strike. We are being forced to. And as luck would have it the stockholders are gonna feel the pain as fast as the rest of us. They will likely persuade these non-negotiating bullies to negotiate. And negotiation is a lot different than saying “it’s our final offer” for 46 days.
The AMPTP’s press statement could not be more ridiculous.
Hey, cut the AMPTP some slack! It took the film and TV companies decades to discover all the wondrous ways to cheat people out of their profits and royalties. And now you expect them, in mere weeks with computers, to do the same job that two sets of books have been handling all these years?
Without actors there is NO product. There’s no resells, DVDs, tapes, trinkets, toys, trading cards, clothing lines, etc etc.
Live it up SAG members, in another decade or so you’re all going to be replaced by computer-generated virtual actors.
You’re far from the crucial link in the “product,” in fact you’re probably the one that’s going to be the most replaceable by the next generation of technology.
As far as I know, computer generated virtual actors need real actors to map to get the facial expressions and emotions across. Otherwise, you have videogames.
Dave -
For some time musical purists feared drummers would be replaced by drum machines.
Drummers are still in demand.
Why? Drum machines have no soul.
Actors won’t be replaced because most people, most of the time, want to be entertained by other people.
The moguls understand this. Otherwise, they’d be much farther along in trying to replace us.
“As the Soviets said to the Nazis at Leningrad…”
Didn’t Stalin lock the gates of the city and leave his soldiers unarmed to fight with pitchforks against the Nazis, resulting in half a million casualties in a single day? That’s certainly the type of strategy I’d espouse if I were a working actor making it paycheck to paycheck…victory at all costs, trample the little guy, kill whomever must be sacrificed – viva SAG huzzah!
Don’t ya just love it when studio hacks post with their barely concealed contempt and hubris?
mheister to dave: “Actors won’t be replaced because most people, most of the time, want to be entertained by other people.
The moguls understand this. Otherwise, they’d be much farther along in trying to replace us.”
ABSOLUTELY spot on, mheister!
The fact of the matter is that, from the dawn of civilization, when people ACTED out stories around the tribal fire, ACTORS have been the soul and focal point of entertainment. Actors don’t need anyone else to entertain. Just a bare field will suffice for an actor to entertain people.
But without actors, nobody else in the industry has a job. Costumers have nobody to costume, directors have nobody to direct, film crews have nobody to point the camera at. (Unless, of course, you’re just making a travelogue of pretty scenery.)
And it’s true that human actors will NEVER be replaced – because no computer-generated humanoid will ever have the heart and soul of a breathing human being.
SAG is right when it says it’s not asking for a “better” contract – just a DIFFERENT contract that serves actors’ needs.
However, if the AMPTP wants to continue to play those word games, then call their bluff. When they pointedly ask “Why does SAG deserve a better contract than everyone else?”, SAG should just say “Because we are the ACTORS. We’re the REASON that everyone else has a job. We’re the performers, the heart and soul of entertainment, that everyone else in this town leeches off of in order to make a living. Without us, you would just be making travelogues and documentaries. And THAT is why we deserve a better contract.”
Send out the strike autho, SAG. I’m waiting to check YES.
And I have been a middle-income actor for 30 years, in case anyone wants to know.
You might be holding all the chips, but the actors are holding all the cards. So what’s it going to be?
Newsflash for Helen – for every actor making a living at it, there are 1,000 people in SAG ready to take their place, and at least another 1,000 outside of SAG willing to take the job. That pretty much means actors are the easiest people to replace.
Newsflash for karen,
If you’ve ever participated in a casting session, you know that just calling yourself an actor doesn’t mean you can act. It’s hard work, and requires talent, tenacity and a good bit of luck. Not that Hollywood’s purely a meritocracy, because it isn’t, but you insult working actors by naively and incorrectly implying that they are so easily replaced. Unlike you and your job answering Nick Counter’s phones.
Venice
Karen -
With respect, replacing an actor is not exactly the same as replacing a temp in a steno pool. If the moguls thought they could replace actors so easily, do you think there’d be any actor anywhere making anything better than SAG minimum?
As an actor, finding that special something that puts you in demand ain’t as easy as it sounds. Casting directors regularly sift through hundreds, maybe thousands of actors who are close but haven’t quite figured out how to click yet.
A statement like yours bespeaks your lack of experience on the acting or casting sides of the industry.
“As the Soviets said to the Nazis at Leningrad…”
Didn’t Stalin lock the gates of the city and leave his soldiers unarmed to fight with pitchforks against the Nazis, resulting in half a million casualties in a single day?
Maybe Chris, but I recall that Stalin and his army had the last laugh with the Soviets rolling into Berlin. Last I checked, the German eastern advance was stopped in the old Soviet Union. Had Hitler taken Moscow, we (The USA) would have been next because we would have been distracted by Japan. By the end of 1944, Germany could have controlled much of Europe, Canada, and half of the United States. Since our boys were fighting in the Pacific, there is no reason to think that the east coast along with the central plains would have been an easy takeover for the Germans while Japan would have taken the west coast and Rockies.
Think before you say anything. What Germany did to Leningrad is akin to the AMPTP stuffing a horrible deal into AFTRA’s throat and a thin slice of actors being forced to take the deal because 85% of the membership includes local and national TV personalities including TV News anchors and Al Roker, local and national radio personalities, and local and national weathermen including but not limited to Jim Cantore and David Letterman.
If you want symbolism, I’ll give it to you. This is shaping up to be the Revolutionary War all over again. The day that the AFTRA ratified their contract was the start of the SAG’s Valley Forge. Recall that in that war, General George Washington and his men were stuck out in the cold while the British, the present day AMPTP, had control of New York. We are now only approaching a turning point and may have gone past it with revelations that the WGA isn’t getting their new media residues. Finally, there is the surrender point, and the AMPTP is quickly reaching that point. As of now, the major movie studios are quickly running out of product to sent to the theaters, and SAG doesn’t care because there are deals with independent filmmakers to create product. And then there is the bad economy. If there is a strike, the shareholders will not only be pressuring the AMPTP, but forcing them to take whatever SAG demands and the strike could be over in less than two months. SAG must support the Strike authorization and must do it at once.
Actors won’t be replaced because most people, most of the time, want to be entertained by other people.
That sounds like the same kind of wishful thinking the newspaper and magazine folks said about the Internet — and seems especially ironic giving you’re posting it ON one of those Internet sites that’s replacing newspapers and magazines.
The people will still be getting entertained by “other people” — but they’ll be the writers, directors, etc. that are also responsible for that “entertainment,” not human actors.
And to address “just saying”’s comment, if anyone really thinks computer generated graphics aren’t going to be able to easily express “facial expressions and emotions” within the next 10-15 years then you really need to take another look where the technology is going. Or at least start by watching a Pixar film.
Looking at the “there’s no product without actors” line of reasoning…
That may be true, but it doesn’t have to a union actor.
If the employer is a “lying weasel,” then why not find different work?
Rarely have I seen a more obvious example of why unions have outlived their usefulness.
to DAVE : A PIXAR film???? Are you serious?? I’m rolling on the floor laughing!!!
We’re talking about DeNiro, Hoffman, Streep, Lange, Pitt, Dench, etc., etc., etc…..
And “Dave” is talking about freakin’ Buzz Lightyear and Woody!!!!
ROTFLMAO!!!!!!!!
You MUST be a studio shill!
Ok lets take a look at the last two films made by Pixar and the last two films starring the actors you mentioned…
PIxar: Wall-E, Ratatouille
DeNiro: What Just Happened?, Righteous Kill
Hoffman: Kung Fu Panda, Mr. Magorium’s Wonder Emporium
Streep: Mamma Mia!, Lions for Lambs
Lange: Bonneville, Neverwas
Pitt: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Burn After Reading
Dench: Quantum of Solace, Notes on a Scandal
From where I stand, Wall-E and Ratatouille are classics, and most of the rest will be forgotten. Brad PItt’s might stand the test of time, but they will be remembered first and foremost as a David Fincher and Coen Brothers movie, respectively, not as a Brad PItt movie. The only one I would say where the actor made the most significant contribution might be Judi Dench’s amazing performance in Notes on a Scandal.
I agree that these are some of the greatest actors working today, but as we can see, if they don’t have good writing or directing behind them, it doesn’t matter how good they are, the movie will still suck.