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2ND UPDATE: New SAG-AMPTP post coming with all new information...
Just now, the Big Media cartel's negotiating clique, the AMPTP, issued this statement about SAG's decision to seek a strike authorization vote from its members now that all talks have broken down and federal mediation has been adjourned. (It's interesting that the AMPTP has yet to comment on the WGA's news that the infotainment conglomerates aren't paying residuals for writers’ work that is reused on New Media. That was the key issue during the 100-day strike and now the WGA has filed for arbitration):
"Let's review the facts: SAG is the only major Hollywood guild that has failed to negotiate a labor deal in 2008. Now, SAG is bizarrely asking its members to bail out the failed negotiating strategy with a strike vote - at a time of historic economic crisis. The tone deafness of SAG is stunning."
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Ah yes, here comes the panic-spin by the AMPTP…
I sense a certain … alarm in that language. Don’t you? When that kind of passion creeps in, you know you’re getting their attention. Otherwise, it would be boilerplate: “The AMPTP regrets the decision of the representatives of SAG to blah, blah, blah…”
The “tone deafness is stunning?”
And, boy, is it ever interesting that, as noted, there’s NO response to the arbitration claim filed by the WGA?
To all those who are freaking the fuck out that SAG might actually find its balls and give the negotiators the power to tell these shitbirds where to go, consider this: if YOU’RE right, and the AMPTP should be accommodated, and SAG should sign the offer and feel lucky to get it, because the AMPTP is telling the truth and they really need the “flexibility” to “experiment” with new media by putting a nonunion army of actors into SAG’s own contract, and YOU’RE right in standing by that “sunset clause” in AFTRA’s contract, telling all us knucklehead rabble-rousers that “of COURSE the producers aren’t trying to cut residuals for actors by up to 50% – if they do, the town will be outraged and EVERY union will strike!’
Well, then – wouldn’t you think the AMPTP would be interested in a clean record on the contract they HAVE as a model, with the WGA, that they’re currently trying to ram down SAG’s throat?
Think about that invertebrates. They’re not paying the writers under the terms of the SHIT Deal – let alone the FAIR deal SAG wants.
So, we should trust them? We should “take the deal!”
Day after day, all the “don’t authorize a strike even as a negotiating tool” gelatinous hermaphrodites are seeing the results of such defiant, ignorant, willful and dangerous naivete’.
This is why the WGA should have waited for SAG.
The ship has sailed, SAG. Your fellow militants screwed the pooch, and you’re going to have to eat their deal now, whether you like it or not.
From SAG to it’s members:
“We remain committed to avoiding a strike but now more than ever we cannot allow our employers to experiment with our careers. The WGA has already learned that the new media terms they agreed to with the AMPTP are not being honored. We cannot allow our employers to undermine the futures of SAG members and their families.
No timeline has been set for the mailing or return of the strike authorization ballots.”
Read it how you will, but they have not sent out, nor announced they will send out ballots. I know I’m in the minority, but I don’t think any one should be pushed under the bus just so I can keep going to work. Sadly, most people are going to be bitter and angry now matter how this turns out.
So the WGA went on strike because the studios refused to cover the internet, and then the studios finally said after three months of pickets “Okay, we’ll cover the internet,” except they really had no intention of ever paying that money?
Uh, don’t the studios know that the Democrats are coming to power on January 20th? that the president is going to be a big union guy aka the most liberal member of the Senate?
Do the studios really think the WGA’s only tool to fight their illegal collusion is to file for arbitration? Ha! The studios are risking treble damages plus criminal charges, and their head honchos better check with their labor lawyers to make sure the chiefs aren’t PERSONALLY on the hook for a crime here.
This could get good, really good. The studios had such an anti-union white house for so many years they forgot how things can turn on a dime. Well, actually, their stock prices keep reminding them of THAT — especially since many of their stock prices are getting close to a dime — right Les? LOL!!!!!
“Studios will avoid a strike that get them nothing but another chance to look macho. And after they got their asses handed to them by the writers, I doubt these studio chiefs want to take the chance of being embarrassed again.”
WTH? My sympathy lies with the guilds, but that’s a ridiculous set of statements.
AMPTP said they were ending residuals. Didn’t happen. AMPTP refused to include Internet in this deal. They wound up including it. AMPTP said they’d made a last and final offer. It wasn’t.
“The WGA should have waited for SAG?” Are you kidding?
The WGA so clearly picked the right time to strike that SAG has dragged things out to get to exactly the same place on the calendar for THEIR strike.
Don’t you get it? The emasculation of the Golden Globes and looming shutdown of the Oscars is what caused the studio chiefs to buckle. Not only was there money and promotion of their movies at stake, but those big nights out are what make these 5-foot-2 small-penised Napoleans forget for a day how they were laughed at and beat up for their lunch money in grammar school.
Again, we should remain level headed and do what is right for SAG and its actors. That means we strike. If we stay focused on what is fair, then how can we lose?
There is another spin on this. In these economic times, the moguls (literally) and their companies continue to make millions and millions of dollars while they refuse to pay on their contracts or even negotiate new contracts that are fair. This smells of Big Corporate Fall — all someone has to do is drag these companies into court and put these moguls on trial, watch how hard they fall when they become just like any other big company fall since Enron. So, really, it’s not SAG or any other union who is going to cause economic unrest, rather it all started with the moguls and their top-tier management and spin-master accountants. Let’s open their books and see who really is right about all of this. Let’s drag them into the courts. That’ll put their sorry asses into distress.
Here’s the skinny: the AMPTP was STONE in the “negotiations.”
STONE.
The neg com had “moderate” voices heavily involved. The neg com went WAY down the road of compromise. WAY DOWN THE ROAD.
Kapish? BIG concessions.
And the response? STONE. To EVERY SINGLE SUGGESTION.
AND? The “strike authorization vote” To send it out?
WAS VERY,VERY, VERY STRONG. Not just from the “MF crazies.” Also from the people asking the AMPTP to be reasonable in a way the heavy anti-MF-ers on this blog and others would find EXTREMELY reassuring.
THOSE people you’d be cheering on? The “moderates” you want to rule?
THEY VOTED TO SEND OUT THE AUTHORIZATION ALSO
WHY? Because – there was nothing in response. To ANY suggested compromise. And they – even THEY – were PISSED at the AMPTP.
It’s that bad.
They want it all, and they want it now. Their stance is: Go F*** YOURSELF.
So, people? What do we do with that?
TRANSLATION: “Let’s review the facts: SAG is the only major Hollywood guild [that has cojones] that has failed to negotiate a labor deal [i.e., bend over and take it up the arse] in 2008. Now, SAG is bizarrely [bravely] asking its members to bail out [empower] the failed [unflinching] negotiating strategy with a strike vote – at a time of historic economic crisis [brought on by our parent multinationals' over-leveraged acquisitions and consolodations]. The tone deafness of SAG is stunning [i.e., starting to reach even Washington, DC].”
SAG actors are needed and will always be needed and this is a time for all talent to stand together, because if SAG members do not support their leaders on this, they will be bullied and taken advantage of from this day forward. This is about much more than just the issues now. It’s about SAG members staying together and supporting their elected leaders. Don’t undermine your union guys. Stick by them. Even if you disagree and want to make the deal on the table, you need to look at the bigger picture which is the value you place on being part of a union. If you do not vote to authorize, you are voting to take away from your own union’s power and purpose. To me, this is the bottom line that SAG members need to consider.
- An American.
I just can’t believe the negative thinking in this blog of Nikki’s. How many times must I ram down your throats that there is no negotiating with the AMPTP at all no matter what happens.
HERE IS WHAT I AM RAMMING DOWN YOUR THROATS, (and it is all true). Back in early July, it was the AMPTP that gave a “crummy final offer” to SAG with very little or no negotiating. The next contact was made with SAG contacting the AMPTP on August 17th in an effort to restart negotiations. Since then, the next set of meetings were this week (if you call two meetings a set). I am guessing that the mediator told SAG leadership to pursue a strike vote since there is evidence that the AMPTP isn’t living up to its end of the WGA contract and last I checked, when a partner doesn’t live up to its half of the contract, it is null and voided. What this means is that the writers strike never ended, the NLRB will be forced to void the current WGA/AMPTP contract will be voided, and so will be the vote that ended the strike.
For those of you that attack the UAW, leave them out of it. The UAW isn’t to blame for the automakers woes, it is upper management at Ford, GM, and Chrysler. The only difference between the AMPTP and GM is that GM admits that something is wrong. The AMPTP does everything in its power to undermine the guilds. If the AMPTP truly wanted to negotiate fair contracts, then I am pretty sure that new contracts with every guild/union would have been wrapped by now with the Teamsters next. Frankly, I wonder if Nick Counter and his ilk love coal because that is all they deserve in their stockings this Christmas.
Godspeed to Henry Waxman in his new chairmenship and I hope that he sorts this all out, and that someone is put into prison for life on all sorts of fraud.
Strike Winner is wrong. I am starting to believe that the networks and studios (the AMPTP in extension), never caved. They just agreed to a settlement so they can enjoy The Oscars. If that is actually true, I hope that the likes of Peter Chernin, Les Moonves, and Bob Iger choke on their turkey this Thanksgiving.
Take the WGA deal, SAG. It was hard fought and while it isn’t perfect, it establishes an important beachead in new media. If you think whatever minimal improvements the studios might cough up will be worth the devastation of a strike, you are sadly mistaken. As a writer who spent every day for weeks on the picket lines, I ask you to let cooler heads prevail during this harsh economic climate. Don’t put Hollywood out of work for gains that will be less significant than the ones the writers achieved over the DGA.
If the studios would deal directly with the Guilds instead of hiring that bunch of thugs known as the AMPTP to negotiate for them, we all might have a lot more respect for one another in this town.
Actors have nothing left to lose. Management wants to shove that crappy contract the other Guilds accepted down their throats, meanwhile they won’t even pay the money they already owe on past contracts. Who is going to trust them now? They’ve almost guaranteed the strike authorization will pass.
What a royal mess all around.
>> When “talent” can just be “discovered” on the street and an A-list replete with talentless hacks… why would any studio continue to pay millions to any singular actor for just one production much less residuals to actors that are virtually interchangeable for any “talent” that can be “discovered?”>>
Yeah, that’s right. The SAG Basic Agreement is all about what A-list stars get paid.
Or maybe, you know, not so much. It’s much more about what scale is, and the basic everyday stuff for working actors who aren’t negotiated with individually for beaucoup bucks. As such, making sure residuals, and suchlike concerns, get paid to non-stars is the point.
They’re not negotiating Mel Gibson’s next deal. But the next people to appear in no-star vehicles like TWILIGHT? Yes, them.
Do NOT strike!
We’ve been backed into a corner. Start swinging.
Strike. Strike when it hurts, during the award shows. Strike where it hurts, their dwindling change purses. They need us.
The reason Unions were created was because companies around this time 100 years ago felt that they could work people long hard hours without food, breaks, or humanity. They felt that the people were so bad off because of the weak economy of the time that they could pay people an unfair wage and expect the world.
They still think they can do that.
We worked our asses off to become card carrying members to earn a fair wage. To have a voice in this very process and make a decent living.
Let that voice ring out. Strike. And Strike when and where it hurts. Unite for Strike.
My feeling is “go right ahead.” Because of the IA’s hard line on low budget filming in LA (ORGANIZE AT ALL COSTS!!!) and SAG’s refusal to extend the LBA to low budget non-theatricals (such as TV movies for SciFi and Lifetime, which has been the only business lately), I haven’t shot anything in LA in YEARS. I’ve worked more in Vancouver and Romania. So I called my casting director friend in London and told her to tell all the agents to get their clients to start practicing their Standard American accents. I’ll just go to Romania and use British actors and, as a Romanian company, screw Global Rule One. I used to employ lots of American actors. Then, only the few I was allowed to bring overseas. Now, it will be none. Way to go, SAG.
The studios just don’t pay and you fools are ready to bend over. Pathetic. The Studios are creating enemies out of the people they can’t make movies without. Anyone who has gotten notes from a marketing douchebag knows that it always sinks the show.
The kind of hatred being created towards the studios will be their undoing.
Break out the side deals, baby!
The vast majority of the SAG Board knows that something stinks in the State of Hollywood; and it’s not the AMPTP. It is the self-righteous, self-aggrandizing Membership First component of the Hollywood Division of the Board. It’s clear why the SAG National Board left it up to the Negotiating Committee (still primarily comprised of MFers from the soon-to-be lame duck Rosenberg Administration) to ask for a strike authorization from membership. It would allow the vast majority of SAG members nationwide to once and for all repudiate the ill-fated leadership that has been running this sideshow called a Guild for the last 3 1/2 years by voting the authorization down. It’s inevitable that this will happen. The last SAG National Election is an early indicator of that.
While it is true that an “authorization” doesn’t necessarily mean a strike is at hand, it would be ill-conceived to think otherwise in this particular circumstance. For far too long, membership has been brought to its knees by an ideologically-primitive group of inbred individuals who, while truly motivated in some sick way to do what is best for membership, see fire-breathing dragons and phantoms where they don’t exist.
Let’s be clear. The AMPTP is not in the least comprised of wide-eyed altruistic types hell bent on devising means of a more equitable distribution of the spoils. They would gladly beat back decades’ worth of gains to enhance their bottom lines. And keeping that in mind, it’s important to have negotiators who are stalwart. But be real people. While there is no question that producers are reaping a tremendous amount of profits, what do they amount to in real dollars when facing an increasingly turbulent economic situation? The world’s present-day woes makes folly of the mere notion of SAG’s calling a strike.
Rather than risk embarrassment, it might have been far more prescient of SAG to have negotiated a deal with minimal blips above and beyond what AFTRA, the DGA, and the WGA got in order to save a little face, legally commit the AMPTP to come up with the contractually mandated $60 million in force majeure payments the Guild is owed (money the Guild and its Membership REALLY NEED RIGHT NOW) and get on with it.
SAG’s negotiators should take a tip from their brethren at the UAW who are now walking practically in lockstep with their management counterparts in order to save an industry. For too long, the posturing on both sides has been disheartening. Enough is enough of SAG’s ideology and the AMPTP’s intransigence. The stakes for all involved are far to great for this to continue the 4-6 weeks longer it will take to bring this vote to membership and tally the results. Folks, let’s “Git ‘er done…”
Who will fall harder in 2009? The BIG THREE CEO’s in Detroit or those of the BIG MEDIA cartel?
The people (workers) and soon the Gov’t will be swinging their 50 oz. Louisvilles.
These fatcats just don’t get it. Same game; different rules now. Take that to the bank, Jack.
LineProducer is correct:
First the work goes elsewhere. Then, it starts to originate elsewhere. This business has always been the same. The less you work, the less you work. No one will fly you to Romania for a walk-on.
I just finished a very low budget film (under 100k) where one of the producers was also a SAG actor who shepherded the project. SAG’s restrictions forced the actor to reduce their own onscreen role so as to be able to afford the SAG imposed costs. SAG claimed to want the actor to succeed, all while standing in the way of that actor’s success.
So now SAG is in the business of greenlighting low-budget films based on paperwork performance and the ability to possess deep pockets? We all know that money and creativity are directly proportional, right? That should make every actor enraged, because an unknown’s best shot at getting noticed, and a known actor’s best shot at landing a role that they’ve developed rests in the world of low and ultra low budget. SAG, please, stop helping.
You want to stick it to the AMPTP? Good luck, because your only hope is the ability for creatives to bypass the established system and force competition – and SAG stands squarely in the way of that occurring. You want transparency? Good luck, sucker, because SAG isn’t interested in that any more than the AMPTP.
Yeah, the AMPTP are pricks – get used to it. They’re running a business, and don’t care about the creative, unless it makes more money. The people who do care about the creative are getting squashed out of the system by both sides – which is bad, because the entertainment business needs to be entertaining. Do you want to stand around with signs or do you want to get to work undermining their control of the product? Good acting takes talent, but anybody can be a producer.
The commenters here are incredibly short sighted. They claim that SAG should strike because signing would be worthless due to AMPTP not honoring agreements.
Hello? Then what are you hoping to achieve with a strike? An agreement? That the AMPTP will then not honor? After you’ve damaged the actors financially by striking, thereby strengthening the bargaining power of the AMPTP?
Are you, pro-strikers, in fact, working for the AMPTP? Because this course of action is exactly what they want.
What they don’t want, however, is competition, and despite the best efforts of SAG, they’re getting it at levels never before seen through new media. And it has them very worried – which is why the tough talk. Strike, and they keep you from working, and simultaneously figure out how to control the coming new business model. Great strategy, SAG.
You stick with the Dinosaurs, you die with them.
I wish labor never had to strike to get the pay and benefits they deserve. But when things have gotten so out of whack and the workers subsist on the scraps they are thrown by the leaders, it is the only possible choice. Or should we go back to the days of 80-hour work weeks and unregulated child labor?
I wish SAG every success in their push for fair pay and fair treatment. When all content is delivered over the Internet, they will be happy they stuck their necks out for new media pay.
“the AMPTP was STONE in the ‘negotiations.’
The neg com had ‘moderate’ voices heavily involved. The neg com went WAY down the road of compromise. WAY DOWN THE ROAD.
Kapish? BIG concessions.
And the response? STONE. To EVERY SINGLE SUGGESTION.”
You write that as if it is a reason to strike. If what you wrote is true, it is actually a reason not to.
Because what it says is that your negotiators are not any more competent than the WGA’s. It says that your negotiating committee didn’t learn from any of the WGA’s mistakes. It says that your negotiating committee will give up demands in exchange for nothing. It says that a SAG strike will result in the same meager B.S. that the WGA strike did. It says that AMPTP knows what a negotiation is and SAG doesn’t.
A negotiation isn’t about holding hands and singing “Kumbaya.” It’s a zero-sum game. Get a frickin’ clue.
The only thing that bothers me about SAG is that most of its members are meagerly employed, if employed at all. It loses nothing by striking every three years. The majority of its membership risks nothing on a strike. They’ll still be pouring coffee on the first day of the strike just like they were the day before it.
Oh, well. I hope SAG gets its strike going before the Globes. I’ll love hearing HFPA b!tch and moan about their Globes being killed two years in a row. My pleasure from that isn’t worth the other misery that SAG will cause everyone (who are working, of course) from striking, but at least it’s something.
To: lineproducer@ 3:59
You wrote that you haven’t shot anything in LA for years, then continue on with your egocentric diatribe…please do us all a favor and stay in Romania and Vancouver…one less prick in Hollywood is a blessing to all.
Loser!
It’s amazing that there is not even a strike yet and all this drama has enraged so many people including myself.
In fact, the issue has already made my wife and I get in a fight tonight. Because I do my work, I suck producer’s dicks, I help actor’s get work again and again. I went to school, I finished school, I won awards, I did the hard work and now I get shit on. My mortgage is normal, no ARM, no bailout for me.
Thanks actors! When you picket, or just strike and skip walking the line, just know I already hate you forever.
Someone please tell me how the geniuses running SAG plan to keep AFTRA from taking over all new television production while SAG pickets.
Re: 3:59 pm today,
I can’t imagine how bad a line producer you have to be to not be able to find work in the United States.
The majority of actors in SAG are ALREADY unemployed! Of course they will get at least 75% on the ballots as it’s better to walk a picket line then sit around waiting for your agent to call. Go for it SAG and don’t puss out when the awards nights arrive as that is your ace in the hole. It’s so damn obvious what the truth is as we all know how producers treat their people, why do you think everyone despises them in our industry.. they are all just lawyers and we all know the reputations of that ilk.
“Anytime a person or group threatens the good of society, society will always cast them out” Will Smith, on Oprah this past week. Ironic.
You see the reason SAG has become the threat- they don’t bring any money to the table to share with the rest of us. Like them or hate them, the AMPTP brings something to the table for all of us- money. As a coordinator I get one of the worst possible deals of all union positions, however, SAG does not bring any money to the table to pay me- the studio does. Sorry, but my kids eat food that I buy with $$$money, not fan favorite emotions.
The fact that anyone can think of striking right now leaves me with the feeling that you make too much money already- if you can afford to strike!
A little over a year ago I sat in my house with my wife telling her I didn’t think there was a chance in Hell the WGA (of which I’m a member) would get the strike authorization vote.
I thought everyone was concerned about the economy and gas prices and they couldn’t afford not to work.
Then the strike happened and it lasted. We all got hurt and apparently the deal we struck with the studios isn’t being honored and we can’t do a damn thing about it.
Any of you commenting on here saying there is no way SAG will get the votes to strike because of the economy are as deluded as I was a year ago.
While the economy wasn’t in the present state over a year ago, it was getting rough for everyone and still my union voted to put us all out of work for 4 months to get gains that we’re just now realizing meant nothing.
I think we’re all in business with a big bully who can do what they want…because at the end of the day, we need them and their money to do what they do.
If it gets to a strike vote and all the members are educated and persuaded by their union that striking is the only way to fight the bully, it will happen.
And I’ll be looking to get to get a paper route.
I used to always sit back and say if I didn’t hit a certain level in my career by a certain point in time, I’d drop show business and go work on Wall Street.
Heh. I wonder if I can still go to medical school.
The producers have 4 EMPTY walls without the creativity of the writers and actors! Time to pay them FAIRLY…or keep your empty stages.
The studios are going down in this economy, regardless. With Obama’s plans for the internet and net neutrality, the indies will have an advantage. Studios contracts are a moot point when there are no studios involved. The future of the business is looking more and more independent.
A strike now could be more effective than ever. If the studios weren’t concerned about a strike, they wouldn’t issue these statements. Likely the posts calling for no strike are studio shills, especially if they’re pseudonyms. They’re worried. The days of big studio control are as numbered.
Dear “another writer” –
If you thought you’d go to wall street if you didn’t “make it” as a writer, then you’re not a real writer to begin with.
Yeah, the studio bosses are apparently not paying the Internet money we struck for, but then the arbitrators will simply rule in our favor. The arbitrators are neutral, approved by both sides. They’re not studio employees, but rather independent arbitrators who will decide based on what the new MBA calls for.
So we will get what we are owed eventually, as long as the fraidy-cat losers who run the guild’s legal department don’t cave and try to settle as is their wont. In other words, the studios can’t avoid paying us forever — they’re simply enjoying being pricks in the meantime. And of course, sending a message to SAG members along the lines of: do you really want to go out on strike for something we’ll just renege on anyway?
You have to be kidding! Striking during the worst recession in 20 years?? Leverage, there is none. Why? There is little money to produce anyway. SAG’s problem is it’s Leaders, they should be joined with Aftra. It was Tom Bosley and Melissa Gilbert who screwed SAG with their bad advice a while back.
The past eight years of huge prosperity for the top 1% of the country finds most Americans on their knees. How easily most here bend over to get on all 4’s. Get up and fight or get out the lube.
In less than 8 weeks (how good it feels to write that!) we get a pro-union Administration and the AMPTP will be singing a different tune so this is their last gasp before change begins at the Federal level. I hope SAG holds a very hard line until then because the Fed won’t be in the hands of Neocons for the first time this century. The present government is trying with one last dying gasp to bust 2 of the biggest union industries in the US, the entertainment and auto industries. In the past 8 years they have made broad gains in decimating union membership in the US, but the new administration has pledged to help build them again.
I’d advise everyone to read Naomi Klein’s The Shock Doctrine because many people here seem to be reeling from its implementation. To paraphrase Rumsfeld “You get people in a state of crisis and it disorients them, making it easier to move them from Point A to Point B”. If you can’t afford the book, walk to your local library, a resource we all too rarely take advantage of.
The only leverage that either union can ever really hope to gain would come from a SAG/AFTRA union.
That’s where the power will come from…
… just ask the AFL/CIO.
The actors seem to be generally too dumb/egotistical to vote for what’s right for themselves. Why stop now?
Right on Real Writer. You just forgot one more thing, the WGA legal department has the option of going to the NLRB in order to force new media payment. The NLRB can even void the current contract and force the AMPTP to negotiate a better one with the WGA.
I am just calling it like I see it and such offends the sensibilities of some then so be it. The ninety five to ninety eight percent of the guild membership that barely makes it as (insert here)/actor during the best of economic times will not make it in the current economic times if there is a strike (that < $5K per year acting is something). Striking for the hope that someday one will be part of the 2-5% of the “in” crowd of cronies and family members, while being quaint, just may not be feasible at this time.
Who do you think the Federal Prosecutor will be on this one? We had a party tonight and made bets on when the studios would have their first perp walk. It can be fun looking into all this from afar. Keep us posted Nikki.
Aftra productions will fill the void and more TV and film will be under Aftra contracts. Sag will not be locked out but will have made themselves redundant if they attempt a strike. We now will see the studios racing to put more quickie productions in the can as SAG will not attempt to authorize a strike before te Holidays giving the studios an extra couple of months to work and fill the cans. Just watch the project notices come up on Monday, you’ll see. Then the vote will fail as the SAG actors bail to AFTRA to be able to work and survive and SAG will be replaced by the weaker actors guild. Those of us in the other unions will ride the production wave in the coming months and save our earnings to weather the death of SAG and survive somehow. Hollywood will go on without SAG. Merry Chistmas Rosenberg good job!
Dear SAG Members,
Please vote NO on a strike. This is NOT the time to do it. My friends, co-workers and I would run a serious risk of losing our jobs should one happen (God knows you’ll draw it out like you did the commercial strike).
Former co-workers and I already lost our previous jobs from your last strike (how’s that commercial money treating you these days?) and I don’t feel like going through all of that again. Especially now, given today’s climate.
There’s millions of us out there who can be greatly affected by your vote. All I ask is that you consider us.
“In less than 8 weeks (how good it feels to write that!) we get a pro-union Administration and the AMPTP will be singing a different tune so this is their last gasp before change begins at the Federal level.”
And of course, the *first* thing they’ll do is come riding to the rescue of Hollywood.
*snicker*
Its so cute to see people out of touch with politics in the real world place their bets on Federal Intervention.
Everyone needs to remember that during the WGA strike, the AMPTP paid a consulting firm to post on this website. That’s a fact. So I think it’s safe to assume that they’ve got their shills posting again. During the strike the studio flaks often posted as below-the-line workers, thus attempting a divide-and-conquer strategy. As if most B-T-L-ers would love management and hate their fellow union workers.
So please take any striking=disaster posts with a grain or ton of salt.
The AMPTP has made their position quite clear. Their last best final offer is entirely unacceptable. I will vote in favor of the strike authorization.
SAG will never get a better offer without a strike authorization. Why would the AMPTP budge if there was no chance of a strike?
So that’s the decision SAG members need to make. Do you take a chance on a strike to get a better offer, or do you basically tell your leadership to cave. And remember, not only would SAG have to get a strike authorization to move the AMPTP off their current position, SAG would probably also have to actually walk out for at least a day just to prove to the AMPTP that they actually had the balls to call a strike. Sorry to go all machospeak, but that’s the only language the AMPTP speaks. The AMPTP will not move until they see they might actually be faced with a strike. Then the studios can decide if it’s worth giving SAG what amounts to only a tiny bit more money or risk having their struggling companies teeter into bankruptcy (a real risk which will be even more of a possibility a few months out from now).
Dear A Real Writer:
Jesus H., you must be loaded! It must feel wonderful to sit back so smugly and advise everyone not to give any merit to what the majority of the actual people that will be negatively affected by a strike have to say. (Seriously, barely anyone in SAG is an actual working actor, what do they have to lose if there is a strike and this town stops functioning?)
Neither I, nor any of the other BTL or businesses people that have posted their thoughts against a strike are paid shills. To anyone. We are REAL people, with REAL families to support, REAL bills to pay and/ or REAL employees that depend on us for paychecks to support their own families.
How arrogant and short-sighted of you to dismiss our concerns. I, for one, walked the lines during YOUR strike and was extremely supportive. Even while I was, at the same time, suffering financially because, in my business, if nothing is in production, my clients pay me nothing. Hell, I even arranged for pizza to be delivered several times along with other free shit for everyone long after the novelty and do-gooder photo-ops had passed.
It’s nice of you to show guild solidarity. Really, it is. However, for you to sit there and say that the concerns of the very same people who supported you during your four months of shutting this town down (every group I picketed with had almost as many BTL and everything else as there were writers) are from ‘fakes’ is ignorant.
I’ve got your “grain or ton of salt” right here, Real Writer. Right. Here.
STRIKE! STRIKE! STRIKE!
These big dumb corrupt evil studios need to be put in check.
Earth to Transpo!!!
AFTRA acting jobs aren’t that safe either. Click on the link in my name and you will see what I mean. Just about the only AFTRA job that is safe belongs to Al Roker, and even then NBC could cut him in favor of somebody else because he makes too much money. All the AFTRA consists of is all the talk show, weatherpeople, and cable network programming outside of pretty much every primetime scripted program on cable. Add in all the Radio personalities including those who are famous, it is very likely that actors and actresses, including Ellen Degeneres and Whoopi Goldberg, daytime soaps (which is the subject the link in my name), the 1% of primetime broadcast programming, and most of the scripted cable broadcasting, equal up to only 10% of AFTRA’s voting base.
Jeff:
Thank you for your lack of hysterics and name calling.
But here’s the thing. Let’s say I not only consider sister unions, but put your concerns as my primary concern.
I reach exactly the same conclusion as the right thing to do, for the long term. And I’m sorry that my conclusion is not that which you wish.
I consider that every time the AMPTP is rewarding for lying, breaching contract, and cutting off their noses to spite us toward one of our unions, they are given the strongest encouragement possible to do the same to the next union when their contract is up. I consider that if they are rewarded for doing anything possible to break us, that they are strongly encouraged to break you next. I strongly consider that some studio heads have almost come out and said openly over the past decade or so that breaking all unions is their primary concern (e.g., some of Katzenberg’s comments a few years back, if I recall correctly).
So I’m very sorry that my conclusions for are long term are not what you wish, even if I put the concerns of members or other unions paramount to mine.
But even when I do that, my only conclusion is that I should support my own unions (SAG/AFTRA/AEA) to use every honest tool at our disposal to put the greatest disincentive possible for the AMPTP lying (e.g., the recent phantom IATSE agreement), cheating (e.g., “Hollywood accouting” that makes payments only off of absolutely bogus numbers, and late at that) or breach of contract and failure to honor agreements (e.g., the closed-door agreement that AMPTP breached in order to get writers to drop the long promised renegotiation of residuals in return for concessions they immediately “forgot” they agreed to, or their failure to pay SAG series regs the force majure payments they had already agreed to).
Many if not most of us who will unify and vote “yes” consider your short term economic hardship every day, as well as our own, but are very resolute that allowing the AMPTP to divide and conquer us one at a time is in the best in the long term interest of none of us.
Dear “Mark Smith”:
“Twilight” was not 1.5 hours of filming hand puppets. It starred Robert, Kristin, Peter and others who are not only very nice people, but are strong actors who are -very- dedicated to their craft, and who despite their young ages have “paid their dues” for “making it” in full.
“Twilight”s cast was 100% SAG members who were chosen to be the stars of a film to appeal to their target demographic. It’s absolutely offensive (sorry, Nikki) to these SAG actors hard work and dedication to pretend this film had “no stars.” Bullshit. It starred great looking relatively unknown SAG actors with very strong track records for their young ages. NO ACTORS in the target demographic for that film are $20 million stars simply because it’s simply not possible given their youth to have the track record that would afford high-multi-million payouts out of the gate.
If studios (even small ones) thought that they could make the most money hiring a non-union acting cast, that’s exactly what they’d do: In a heart-beat.
The reason you’d be hard pressed to name even 1% of films with a non-union cast is that producers vote with their pocketbooks, and choose members of the Screen Actors Guild to star in their films, because that’s what yields the highest return.
“No stars!” my ass.
“Twilight” starred dedicated hard-working great-looking young members of the Screen Actors Guild. Your willful ignorance of them personally or professionally does not change that.
Twilight was not 1.5 hours of footage of hand-puppets or your grandmothers ass.
It starred relatively unknown members of the Screen Actors Guild who were chosen to carry the film who were obviously the EXACT actors in starring roles that the target demographic wanted to pay to see, over and over again.
Bless them for their years of hard work as members of the Screen Actors Guild which afforded them the highest quality of representation and the opportunity they were afforded and the job they came through on which is putting paying-butts in theater seats, over and over again.
And as long as highly paid actors are members of the Screen Actors Guild who continue to honor rule one, there is not a proverbial chance in hell that SAG actors will be pushed aside or be anything but indispensible in making a product that people will watch.
Let’s be honest. It takes a certain amount of ego to make it in this business. The constant rejections would make someone without a big ego give up before they made it.
This is also SAG’s biggest problem. The union is full of wannabees who will never, ever make a living acting. Their egos delude them to the fact that they aren’t all that. Instead, they blame “the evil suits” for keeping them down.
Uh, no, the truth is these wannabees just suck.
They’re easy to spot. They’re the ones gunning for a strike, since they never work. It doesn’t hurt them. They’re the ones who are so quick to call everyone else a shill. Their complete lack of understanding of business reality makes them think they can cripple the studios. (For a big laugh, go back to the WGA strike posts and read Jessy S’s comical and totally unrealistic predictions about that strike.)
SAG has no interest in weeding out the wannabees, because they buy into the dated notion that more members = more power. This isn’t the 1920’s. People don’t care who stars in a movie. If SAG strikes, the studios can go anywhere else in the world to get material. There’s AFTRA. In short, SAG has no leverage.
The WGA strike was a fiasco. The writers will never in a million years get back what they lost in wages. The strike cost a lot of people their jobs. The audience discovered there were better ways to spend their time. Another strike will only drive away more viewers.
Don’t let the wannabees kill the industry.
The AMPTP is not an honest broker and has no incentive to be. They have the whip hand. Movies can be made anywhere, by anyone. Actors often include crew members, family members of key above-the-liners, dogs and 4-year-old children. SAG has no unified field theory, no seniority, no work guarantees for their below-the-line. Star/producers took off for the cheaper talent of Canada, Australia and Eastern Europe years ago. The brave, intriguing new talent is across the rest of the country. You know, the place that’s been getting the back of the hand from Hollywood studios for the last decade or so. Hollywood is Detroit. Look to Austin, Charlotte, Nashville, and ironically, Detroit. That’s where the emerging talent is.
Okay AMPTP shills…you might as well face up to it…SAG is not to be taken lightly! The lines will eventually be going up and a full solidarity will be exhibited to those disbelievers!!
This is actually great news!
I say, vote YES to a strike.
Watch SAG crumble up and die.
A new. stronger, more united union that’s NOT composed of extras and loopers and wannabes but of working actors will rise up and take it’s place.
Our world will be right again.
And once again, Darwin will be proved right.
VOTE YES!
Well, everybody, anybody, interested in something besides the smoke coming out of their ears – the neg com was 17 members, increased from 13.
That included 4 anti-MF non-Hollywood peeps from each division.
They voted WITH the Hollywood members:
“mediation has failed, therefore we will follow the mandate of the national board and a strike authorization will be sent out”
THAT national board motion came via Mr. pro-AFTRA, WAY anti-MF, NY national board member and former SAG president Richard Masur.
THAT national board motion was passed 97%.
On the neg com, the vote was 15 to 2.
That means a DIVERSE group of neg com members voted to send out the strike authorization folks. Old-timers AND newbies.
What does this all mean? It MEANS – even the MOST anti-MF-ers on the neg com got in the room and said “these people – the AMPTP – are serious pricks and we need the strike tool to get their attention.”
You want a decent deal? You want a deal that stops nonunion actors from pouring into Hollywood to make content? You want to protect residuals, so that, whether it’s pennies (it’s not and it will rise quick) or billions, the actor is tied into the profit stream via a percentage that allows us to prosper if the producers prosper, instead of only allowing the producers to prosper while actors get stiffed? You want that 60 million they OWE from the writers strike PAID? You want to keep force majeure as a right, like we’ve had for decades? You want to have a profession worth being in?
Then give the people: MF, ANTI-MF alike, what they need – a strike authorization.
That’s the ONLY tool the AMPTP will respect. Then, and ONLY then, will we see if they REALLY want a strike or not.
NOBODY wants to strike. NOBODY. But either we stand together, as the DIVERSE negotiation committee just did, or we are lost as a union.
STAND UP!
can someone explain to me when the recently voted in “United for Strength” group will start to chime in and voice some sanity to all this.
How about Mrs. Allen and Rosenburg show some real solidarity and forgo their annual compensation for the remainder of this mess, just as the rest of us have had to forgo ours.
Truly inspiring leadership guys. Waste $150K on a campaign to smear the AFTRA deal,that passes, shit all over the other guilds deals and most importantly hold the feature world hostage as you ‘wait the studios out”. Now let’s go out to our membership, in a time when people are losing their homes and their life savings , the big three may go under effecting at least one million jobs, and let’s pursue strike authorization. Can you imagine what the rest of the nation (and world) must think of us and our elected leadership.
As a proud member of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, I say that while I pray to God the heads of the studios never put you in a position where you feel you have no choice but to strike, if you indeed do choose to strike, WE WILL BE WITH YOU.
“Everyone needs to remember that during the WGA strike, the AMPTP paid a consulting firm to post on this website. That’s a fact.”
“A real writer,” you’re not as important as you think you are. AMPTP does pretty damn well in negotiations just by ignoring the demands of the other side and waiting for them to give up those demands in exchange for nothing. It ignores public opinion, because public opinion doesn’t really matter. The WGA strike was a good example of how it doesn’t matter what an opinion poll says. The public can’t do anything. It’s not a party to the negotiations. Its support might make you feel better, but it doesn’t gain you a single cent.
But I’ll humor you with a question for which you have no answer about your “fact.”
What was the organization that AMPTP paid?
The generality of your statement reveals it for the B.S. that it is.
AMPTP doesn’t care enough about anyone else’s opinion to pay someone to post messages that agree with its own. It simply doesn’t.
I’ll now return you to your deux ex machina speculation about how the federal government will save you from AMPTP should you strike.
That type of speculation is just a further indication that SAG will not succeed. You’re not part of a path to success. You are already depending on some outside force to save you from AMPTP – AND yourself.
Well, you’re just not that important. You’re not.
SAG can save a lot of trouble for everyone by accepting its current deal, or it can strike, cause a lot of trouble, and accept it anyway.
If SAG is going to strike anyway, please do it before the Globes. I can’t stress that enough. HFPA’s reaction last year was hilarious!
Another pitiful Globes presentation? YES PLEASE!
Let’s see how long production takes when you have a bunch one-time background actors leave the set after 10 hours when they get tired because they are only getting $75.00 for the whole day. Or better yet they don’t come back the next day for the match-up shoot becuause they were treated and payed like crap. That’s what UNION is all about and the Producers know it.
Sometimes I’m surprised at the frog who sits in the water that is slowly increasing to a boil pontificating about how the victims should have been more careful and should take what they’re given. You sit in that pot of water watching the $700 billion bail out on TV and don’t realize that’s the corporations, the AMPTPs of the world, figuring out yet another way to take YOUR money.
For those who don’t understand; SAG’s fight is the last hope you have to take care of your family–maybe not this month but over the next 10 years–I hope you come to your senses and realize it’s not your neighbor that’s the problem– It’s the guy whose house you’ve never seen because it sits behind a gate.
Those of us in SAG are your neighbors. We are not your enemy. We walked with you on your picket lines and we would and WILL do it again and again. We are not greedy we just want to feed our families. And you don’t want to stand with us then down your road please be prepared to be honest with your family when you can’t feed them: that it was your inability to understand the big picture that has taken food from them.
“I thought if I could just keep my own head above this water we would be fine. I didn’t understand we were all in this together.”
Tom Jode said, “Ain’t nothing brave about it when you’ve got no choice.” And we hove no choice people. We have been forced to STRIKE. We don’t WANT TO, we aren’t RICH and cavalier, we are backed in a corner–right next to you.
LP wrote, “A new. stronger, more united union that’s NOT composed of extras and loopers and wannabes but of working actors will rise up and take it’s place.”
LP–
My guess is in your daily life your presumption that your job description gives you more worth in this world when compared to those with different job descriptions makes for a pretty empty existence. Be careful what you wish for, because Darwin spoke of survival of the fittest which history has shown is not necessarily the most arrogant.
1. “I think it was a big mistake for the negotiating committee to terminate the mediation after only two days,” said Ned Vaughn, spokesman for the “Unite for Strength” group of actors who have been critical of the union’s leadership. “These difficult times require that we exhaust every opportunity to reach an agreement.”
I don’t know who you are getting your information from, but the Mediator said unless we were ready to take the crap deal, (which the entire committee voted against), the MEDIATOR terminated the negotiations, and all we did was vote to officially stop.
Again, for those interested in the truth, there it is. You can ask anyone who was IN THE ROOM.
It doesn’t matter what deal SAG signs with the AMPTP since the AMPTP won’t honor any deal it signs.
There is no honor among the thieves at the AMPTP.
Let’s hope it’s a long strike and let CGI take the place and make movies in a fraction of the cost. Comment by Jack M
CGI is still very expensive.
And at the end of the day I’d rather have my movie at the mercy of irrational actors than anti-social computer nerds.
I think that if we are going to talk strike then we need to follow through this time ASAP. It is actually worse for the industry to keep on threatening the possibility of a strike than actually striking.
For example, ever since there was the looming possibility of a SAG strike all the way back in May, work has continually dwindled. Investors, independent and studio films, and some TV (including pilots) will not green light if they believe there may be a strike. This means that the industry has been feeling a slow death — reluctant-to-commit financing for product that keeps us all in work. It’s not that the financing isn’t there for what we love (scripted TV/film) but that its security has severely dwindled due to increase risk (chance of a SAG strike). Therefore, the financing has gone to entertainment and media product with less risk attached — reality, documentary, game shows, etc., etc.
The best thing we can do to protect ourselves and everyone else’s job is a shock-and-awe campaign — strike, strike now, strike with clarity. We must be firm.
Not striking doesn’t get us anywhere at this point. Striking at least allows us to make our best effort at saving EVERYONE’S jobs. We’re all worth it. Stand firm.
Harold,
Google these three words: Variety Lehane Strike
Then eat some crow and go back to crying about your life.
Peace!
Norma Rae, read before you post. I have some info on AFTRA that you need to read. Actors make only about 10% of the total membership of AFTRA and the other 90% is local and national news personalities, local and national radio personalities, and hosts of almost every syndicated talk show on TV with a few exceptions. Do you think that Oprah gives a rat’s ass about what every other working actor and actress makes with AFTRA. She makes plenty of money and would agree to any AFTRA contract in a heartbeat.
Also, If you think that producers ignore Hollywood by looking for the next big talent, think again. A lot of Hollywood stars were from other places. Take the stars of “I Love Lucy” for a great example. Lucille Ball was born in Jamestown, New York, William Frawley was born in a small Iowa town, Vivian Vance was born in New Mexico, and Desi Arnez was born in Cuba. No one was born in Hollywood or Southern California except for Richard Simmons who got his start by playing Little Ricky during the second season of the show. From there, there are tons of examples when it comes to either small town boy or girl making it big in Hollywood. I am not going to list them all, but sometimes they are discovered like Lana Turner was at a soda shop or Alexis Beidel simply because she decided to attend New York University. More than likely, people get acting jobs and become stars because they take part in the audition process. Hollywood is littered with famous and not so famous names that auditioned for parts. For example, Jenna Fischer had to audition for many parts before landing Pam on The Office. My point here is that stars come from all over the world, and guess what? SAG is a national guild just like pretty much every guild and actors and actresses must join SAG in order to get a part in a movie or primetime TV show. The AMPTP knows this and that is why they are trying to get SAG to cave and accept a bad deal. Nobody can afford to let this happen.
M.B.W. wrote “The SAG leadership is not listening to it’s own members”
Actually it is. You could stand to educate yourself.
There was a poll sent out recently asking all SAG members their opinion of the current contract offer and it was overwhelmingly decided our negotiators needed to hold out for a better deal. And they do.
Unfortunately an on-line petition of the sort at the link you posted has ABSOLUTELY no merit as it is virtually impossible to determine who these “signers” are, what their relevance is to this industry, any other industry, or anything at all.
I particularly like “and only ONE duplicate signer.”
I understand your panic at the thought of a Strike. But this is an adult problem, and hysterically creating or believing in some ad hoc website to solve this situation is wasted energy. You need to start thinking, research what you are pontificating about and grow up or you are destined to be, as you call yourself, a “working schmuck” forever.
If the producers side of the table would enforce and pay up a fair share back to the guild and other unions, aka workers, then there would be no problem. Plenty of money for everyone, but the traditional position has been management pays as little as it can and labor fights for their small pieces of the pie.
Except for the big stars, no one below the line is making much real money in the film business.
It’s a good living generally, but we work our butts off to make that living.
ANyone not in the labor side of the business probably doesn’t understand that we work 12 hr days on average, with 14s being more common. SAG has the right to strike at a time when every other guild and union has rolled over and put their paws in the air. I say support them if they choose to strike, even if it’s going to cost me. If they strike, I say boycott Movies and TV shows and write to the advertisers and media companies stating why they’re being boycotted.
Mark B, I respect your efforts and financial position. I wasn’t trying to belittle someone who’s trying to do something to make a difference. But I must reiterate what Zackery stated above: SAG is absolutely listening to its membership. I don’t know where you got the opposite idea.
With regards to the online petition, it’s just a waste of time, webspace and effort. That’s like me posting a petition for the AMPTP to “get with the program, stop busting SAG’s balls and offer a fair contract”. And if a thousand so-called ‘industry’ people signed it, do you think that would matter one iota to the AMPTP? No, they have their agenda and they’ll stick to it. Same with SAG. It’s not that SAG doesn’t care about the health of the industry (to the contrary, in fact) but that we have to look out for ourselves first. That’s not selfish, that’s survival.
But you didn’t create a petition aimed at the AMPTP, did you? You took the position that it’s SAG who should “stop the insanity”. As Zackery suggested, you should educate yourself. I don’t mean that in an offhanded or smartassed way. It’s just that those who take the position, as you seem to, that SAG is the offending party in the negotiation logjam ought to open their eyes a bit and look at both sides – put yourselves in our shoes – and then see whom you should aim their ire towards.
SAG screwed the industry and crew members above and below the line with their last strike, as thousands of TV commercials were sent across the border and overseas for production. Now, just as the U.S. and state governments have caught up in the ‘incentive game’ to put production costs on equal footing with countries who are far less costly, SAG and it’s myopic view of the world is about to blow it up once and for all. But as usual, their own members will suffer the most, and the longest.
Hey, I know most of you folks probably don’t pay attention to the financial news, but maybe you ought to take a look at the stocks and bonds of those evil major media companies. They are fighting for their lives in a major economic downturn combined with a major paradigm shift for entertainment. Going on strike right now is likely to put a whole lot of people out of jobs for good, as the evil corporations that employ actors go under. This is not just hype, ask any financial advisor whether he would recommend investing in a media company right now, whether it be CBS, Disney, the NYT, or any of the others.
Negotiating now is negotiating for a bigger piece of a very small pie. Wait until the pie becomes larger before shooting your wad, and your foot.
After twenty five years of being in the middle tier of actors, as a SAG member (ie. being fairly regularly employed), having been employed by all of the major conglomerates at one point or another, five years ago i decided that i needed to do much more than just hang my hat on earning a living as an actor, and began developing projects as a producer.
Re-tooling my career has cost me dearly as far as the pocketbook is concerned, but now I understand clearly that the sacrifice has built a foundation (and equity) for the next twenty five years. I am an independent producer, and not a member of the AMPTP.
At what stage do each of us take responsibility for this terrible situation, stop hurling insults at one another (though that is the Hollywood way, to be sure) and step up to the plate? If the AMPTP will not budge, SAG must vote to strike, if that does not result in the AMPTP stepping down from their present position, then SAG must hit the streets, and shut down those Award shows until it hurts the pocketbook of the titans.
Solid results, for either side, cannot and will not be achieved through name calling, baiting, insulting and lowering (or removing altogether) the ethical standards which SAG has been desperately attempting to get the AMPTP to recognize.
Whether you are invested in this industry as an ATL or BTL participant, please recognize, that each time you hurl insults at one another, the big bosses win, and you are one more step away from achieving success.
Mine isn’t the ‘kumbaya, let’s all hold hands and pray together’ approach… its the ‘let’s be particularly mindful of what exactly it is that we are we passing onto our children, long-term approach.’
In the end, what SAG and its supporters achieve with regards to its present stand-off with the AMPTP, may in fact be less valuable than what we contribute to the process of getting there.
The AMPTP money is there.
Is the SAG resolve and maturity there, in order to secure it?
Mars wrote, ” People don’t care who stars in a movie. If SAG strikes, the studios can go anywhere else in the world to get material. There’s AFTRA. In short, SAG has no leverage.”
Well, that’s just plain silly. Or ignorant. Or deceitful.
If people didn’t care who stared in a movie, why would the penny-pinching studios pay MILLIONS and offer BACK END DEALS to stars??
Duh!
If people didn’t care who stared in a movie, why would nearly EVERY movie poster show the actors faces in massive close ups.
If people didn’t care who stared in a movie, why would film financing and distribution dependent on who STARS in the movie.
So silly little Mars, your statement is so wrong, its laughable. The day SAG goes on strike, all American film and television production stops. That’s SAG’s leverage.
If you guys think that shutting this town down wil get you what you want your “blowing smoke up your own butts”, if you all remember the runaawy production problem we had a few years ago. Well the reason the studios went to Canada was because they didn’t have to pay the backend residuals tp the actors guild in Canada, so you all think that they will just sit there amd wait for you guys while you strike, NOT!. The Producers will just go overseas to shoot movies, and in the US, they will just produce more Reality TV shows and other media that doesn’t require Guilds or Unions, so if you wanna strike just you future and the future of all the Union Labors, goodbye.
I am not a paid to say this by anybody, I am a Union worker who has gone through the worst year in my 25 yrs in the Business, and from what I see it’s not gonna end, so do the right thing for the sake of every Guild and Union accept a deal, so we can all live to fight another day. A strike will only kill whatever we have left, our right to survive, to feed our families, to put a roof over our heads, to just plain be human and do the right thing for everyone, I mean everyone not just yourselves.
Appearance is everything. Its a shame the AMPTP will be able to deflect the blame for the economic harm that will affect ALL guilds if SAG strikes. The future should include a concerted effort to make all guild’s contracts expire concurrently. Then they wouldn’t be able to play games by pitting one against the other. We all fly or we all die. They don’t play (pay) fair. We have no choice but to strike.