Should SAG Put the AMPTP Contract to a Vote?
As 2008 draws to a close with no contract between SAG and the AMPTP, the animosity between factions within SAG has only become more vitriolic. What is the best course of action?
Accept a truly lousy contract now and hope to undo the damage in three years? Or reject the contract and take a strike authorization vote?
What happens if the guild does take that strike authorization vote and it is defeated? What happens if it passes? Do we really want to strike at a time when the national economy and millions of families are in financial distress?
Do we really believe that SAG, WGA and AFTRA will come together in three years as a group, united in a way that they have not been during this round of contract negotiations?
What is the best hope for the non-star actors who rely on contracted minimums and residuals to pay their bills and try to support their families?
Today, Nikki Finke of Deadline Hollywood Daily has posted a proposal to SAG. Below is an excerpt. I suggest you go to DHD and read the whole proposal and then read all of the comments.
The decision by SAG president Alan Rosenberg and executive director and chief negotiator Doug Allen to delay the Strike Authorization Ballot originally scheduled to start January 3rd should be recognized as the smart move to make now when SAG’s solidarity is splitting down the middle. It is a mature recognition that both sides on this issue raise valid points and deserve to be heard before anything with the word “strike” on it is considered by members.The “Yes” camp believes that actors will be stuck with what is inarguably a lousy deal undermining residuals not just for the next three years but perhaps forever given Big Media’s historical refusal to contractually revisit new technologies. The “No” camp thinks that a Strike Authorization will inevitably lead to an ill-timed strike in this economic recession and that SAG should join the other Hollywood guilds in 3 years to try to negotiate better terms with the AMPTP.So what was supposed to be a January 24th weekend National Board meeting has now been moved up to January 12th and 13th. It’ll constitute one of the two plenary face-to-face confabs held each year. The NY Division and the Regional Divisions should have no trouble traveling to the Hollywood division’s backyard with so much advance notice. The point of this decision to delay is to ensure a fair airing of all views. (It even takes into account the “No” vote petition supposedly signed by “well-known” actors even though the list includes no mechanism for verifying the names posted on it.)
I believe that SAG now has a unique opportunity to bypass a strike authorization altogether and place itself in an even stronger negotiating position by following a third and less risky course of action: to vote on the AMPTP’s June 30th contract proposal.
Therefore, I urge SAG to…
See the whole post and comments at Deadline Hollywood Daily
Austin Business Journal: Positive News for Austin Film Business
Here is an excerpt of a recent article from the Austin Business Journal that offers a bit of positive news for the local film industry The full article can be found HERE:
Friday, December 5, 2008
New action in local film sector
No. 1 ranking in movie magazine lures producers
Brady Anderton and Ben Hurst of Fueld Films based the relocation of their company on two things: a spreadsheet and a gut feeling.
Fueld Films, a commercial and film production company, moved from Denver to Austin four months ago. But before the company moved here, the duo put together a spreadsheet that looked at factors like livability and infrastructure. Then, they compared the city to other top film production markets from Los Angeles to Chicago.
“Austin outscored everybody,” Anderton says. “And it looks like additional infrastructure is coming as far as studios, additional crew and additional talent.”
“We also got a feeling,” Anderton adds with a chuckle.
Fueld Films is among a handful of film or video companies that have gotten a good feeling about Austin in the last year. Independent film and video production company Publik Pictures LLC also relocated to Austin a few months ago from the East Coast.
Many of these filmmakers are pointing to Austin’s first-place ranking in MovieMaker magazine’s list of best places to live, work and make movies. Austin outranked New York and Seattle, along with up-and-coming locations like Albuquerque, N.M., and Shreveport, La., according to this year’s survey.
And it’s not only small production companies making the move.
This week, four Hollywood veterans debuted Wildfire Films Co., an Austin-based film production company that has received the green light for close to $86 million in film projects.
Wildfire Films’ first project is a $25 million feature film, “16 Minutes,” about Hispanic civil rights leader Gustavo “Gus” Garcia. It is co-producing the film with Fred Roos of Overture Films.
Wildfire Films Producer Mark Hacker says the company selected Austin because of the availability of production talent and the concentration of “new media” companies.
“We came here because of the people and the artistic community for filmmakers,” Hacker says. “Now there is also a resurgence with new media that’s flourishing in Austin.”
SAG Schedules Strike Authorization Vote
SAG Announces Plan for Strike Authorization Vote:
LOS ANGELES, DECEMBER 10, 2008 — Screen Actors Guild today announced that strike authorization ballots will be mailed to paid-up SAG members on Friday January 2, 2009, and will be tabulated on Friday, January 23. A yes vote by 75% of members voting is required to pass the measure, which would authorize SAG’s national board of directors to call a strike, if and when the board determines it is necessary.
Screen Actors Guild National President Alan Rosenberg said, ”SAG members understand that their futures as professional actors are at stake and I believe that SAG members will evaluate the AMPTP’s June 30 offer, and vote to send us back to the table with the threat of a strike. A yes vote sends a strong message that we are serious about fending off rollbacks and getting what is fair for actors in new media. I am encouraged by the response of the capacity crowd at our Los Angeles town hall meeting Monday night.”
”We want SAG members to have time to focus on this critical referendum, so we have decided to mail ballots the day after New Year’s. We will continue our comprehensive education campaign and urge our members to vote yes on the strike authorization. I am confident that members around the country will empower our negotiating team with the leverage and strength of unified Screen Actors Guild members. Our objective remains to get a deal that SAG members will ratify- not to go on strike,” said SAG National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator, Doug Allen.
Ballots will be tabulated at Integrity Voting Systems in Everett, Washington. Passage requires 75% yes vote from those voting.
The AMPTP Response:
It’s now official: SAG members are going to be asked to bail out a failed negotiating strategy by going on strike during one of the worst economic crises in history. We hope that working actors will study our contract offer carefully and come to the conclusion that no strike can solve the problems that have been created by SAG’s own failed negotiation strategy.
SAG South Region Production Update for Texas And Louisiana
Here’s the latest SAG production update that members receive via email. I’m just including Texas and Louisiana here. Note the number of “TH”, that is ‘Theatrical’ contracts in Louisiana vs the number of low budget contracted productions in Texas.
This is a reminder of what is at stake unless the Texas legislature improves the tax incentive program in the upcoming session. Actors, crew and businesses that service film productions can’t survive on low and ultra-low budgeted productions. We must have a better incentive program to lure back at least some of the bigger budgeted films that now go to Louisiana, New Mexico and now Michigan.
If you haven’t already done so, please join the TXMPA and help in the effort to rescue the Texas film industry.
Texas
Apparition – Ultra Low Budget
Firestorm Pictures
Location: Houston, TX
Start Date: To be determined
Beyond the Farthest Star – Low Budget
Pathlight Entertainment, LLC
Location: Dallas-Fort Worth, TX
Start Date: February 2, 2009
Chops, The – Ultra Low Budget
Steven Cortinas
Location: Houston, TX; Los Angeles, CA
Start Date: November 15, 2008
Fifth, The – Ultra Low Budget
Black Cloe Productions
Location: Grandbury, TX
Start Date: December 13, 2008
Kalle King – Low Budget
Susie T. Entertainment
Location: Dallas, TX, New York, NY, Hollywood, CA
Start Date: November 23, 2008
Sweet Justice – Ultra Low Budget
American Film Werkz
Location: Dallas, TX
Start Date: December 4, 2008
Louisiana
Caged Innocence – TH
United Spirits LLC
Location: Shreveport, LA
Start Date: January 10, 2009
Dead Whisper – TH
Dead Whisper Pictures, LLC
Location: New Orleans, LA; Big Bear, CA
Start Date: January 12, 2009
Eyes of the King – Theatrical
Eyes of the King, LLC
Location: Louisiana (non-specific)
Start Date: To be determined
House of Bones – Low Budget Affirmative Action
House of Bones, LLC
Location: New Orleans, LA
Start Date: December 1, 2008
Night of the Demons – Theatrical
Prodigy Entertainment
Location: Baton Rouge, LA
Start Date: To be determined
Three Stories about Joan – Theatrical
Three Stories Productions, LLC
Location: Shreveport, LA
Start Date: To be determined
The WGA responds to the AMPTP “check is in the mail” press release
“The facts of this matter are simple and straight forward. The WGA attempted for eight months, since March, to address via dialogue the AMPTP’s erroneous interpretation of our February agreement. These efforts included a number of conversations between the Guild’s executive director and at least one of the CEOs who made the deal with the WGA, as well as multiple conversations over months with the top executives of the AMPTP, all to no avail. We will now go to arbitration to force compliance, and we expect to prevail.
“While the date the arbitration was filed was not related to negotiations between SAG and the AMPTP, it is important to point out that the AMPTP apparently had no qualms about announcing its “deal” with the IATSE on the day prior to the mediation with SAG, obviously timed to impact on those discussions. The WGA, like everybody else in this industry, is extremely anxious about those negotiations and hopeful that the AMPTP will reach a fair and reasonable agreement with SAG quickly.”
AMPTP Blasts WGA Stance on Nonpayment of New Media Residuals
A week or two back the WGA went public with its frustration over not receiving residuals from streaming and EST content. The WGA vented their frustration at the same time that the AMPTP was refusing to go back to the bargaining table with SAG. Here is the AMPTP response to WGA assertion that the AMPTP members are not paying residuals from the new contract AMPTP. This is the same deal the AMPTP insists is the best deal SAG will get.
It appears that the AMPTP is suggesting two things here: A. The check is in the mail and B. We can figure out how to stream media, make deals for EST, etc. but we just haven’t had time to figure out how to track all those little digital bits to make sure that we’re paying the correct residual amounts.
Here’s the way the AMPTP put it:
On November 19th, the Writers Guild of America issued a press release alleging that Hollywood studios “are not paying residuals for writers’ work that is reused on new media.”
— The WGA issued its press release just as a federal mediator was about to bring SAG and AMPTP together. In addition, the WGA made its complaint about new media residuals without first asking any of the Companies to help resolve any outstanding issues, as is customary practice.
— The WGA’s press release was highly misleading and seems to have been designed to poison the atmosphere for the federal mediation rather than to actually ensure that residual payments are made to working writers.
Here are the actual facts, in a nutshell:
STREAMING
— Some studios have either made streaming payments to the WGA under the new formula, or are set to make those payments this week. The remaining studios are still working to program their residual systems to incorporate the new formulae. Some will process the payments manually in the meantime. Interest will be paid on any late payments.
— Further, studios have been making residual payments all along for Temporary Downloads, as well as Permanent Downloads (called Electronic Sell-Through, or EST). EST residuals for programs released before February 13, 2008 have been included in the DVD payment structure, contrary to the WGA’s press release that payments were not being made for the reuse of writers’ work on new media.
Even before the WGA issued its press release, studios had informed the WGA that new systems were being put in place to calculate and distribute streaming residuals. WGA was further informed that even though the new systems were difficult, costly and time-consuming to implement, steady progress was being made. Complexities of the new procedures include:
An unprecedented number of new formulas for residual payments for film
and television streaming, permanent downloads (EST), and derivative and
original made for new media programs that needed to be programmed.
Payment systems must account for a variety of new variables, including
platform, release window, library vs. current product and allocations to
each Guild and Union.
WGA also knew that, to the extent the difficulties in creating these new systems delayed payments beyond their due dates, the studios would owe interest payments as called for by the labor agreement.
WGA knew all of this and nonetheless issued its press release.
The WGA knew all of these facts, but decided to misuse the issue of new media residuals for the Guild’s own partisan purposes. Instead of working cooperatively with the Companies to resolve any outstanding issues, the WGA went public on the eve of the crucial SAG-AMPTP federal mediation. This move was blatantly designed to disrupt that mediation and help justify SAG’s eventual decision to reject the AMPTP’s offer and end the mediation. In short, AMPTP and the studios are dealing with the issue of new media residuals substantively, while WGA is more concerned about playing politics with the issue than with ensuring that working writers receive payment.
ELECTRONIC SELL-THROUGH (EST)
Also on the eve of the federal mediation, the WGA filed an arbitration claim disputing the way AMPTP was interpreting certain language in the new agreement.
WGA filed this arbitration claim to generate the kind of media coverage that would poison the atmosphere just prior to the start of federal mediation.
The language at issue in the WGA agreement is exactly the same language that was included in each of the Guild and Union contracts negotiated this year. No other Guild or Union has ever questioned the interpretation of the language. No one else has ever suggested that the language means anything other than what it clearly says.
Here are the specific details on the language that WGA has disputed:
— The newly-negotiated terms for EST are consistent among the WGA deal and those labor pacts negotiated by the DGA, AFTRA and IATSE. The language (see below) clearly specifies that the terms shall apply to motion pictures (e.g., TV and features) released after the start of the new WGA contract, February 13, 2008.
— The following is the language on permanent downloads (EST) as laid out in Section 1.b. of the “Sideletter on Exhibition of Motion Pictures Transmitted Via New Media” (as taken from the Final Memorandum of Agreement sent to WGA on Feb. 21, 2008):
“Paid Permanent Downloads (’Download-to-Own’ or ‘Electronic Sell-Through’) (’EST’). The following shall apply to motion pictures released after February 13, 2008: If the consumer pays for an EST copy of a theatrical motion picture, the Company shall pay residuals to the credited writer(s) at the rate of 1.8% of 20% of Company’s “accountable receipts,” as that term is defined in Paragraph 3 below, for the first 50,000 units and 3.25% thereafter. If the consumer pays for an EST copy of a television motion picture, the Company shall pay residuals to the credited writer(s) at the rate of 1.8% of 20% of Company’s “accountable receipts,” as that term is defined in Paragraph 3 below, for the first 100,000 units and 3.5% thereafter.”
SAG and the AMPTP trade press releases
The bad blood between SAG and the AMPTP seems to be getting thicker as both sides take to hammering each other with press releases and letters to their memberships.
First is SAGs official release following a full page ad the AMPTP published in the L.A. Times:
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?”
The AMPTP responded with this:
“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.”
Open Letter From SAG to Membership
Dear Screen Actors Guild Member,
In an “open letter” full-page ad published today in the Los Angeles Times, eight entertainment industry CEO’s whose annual salaries and bonuses exceed the amount needed to achieve labor peace for our industry asked why SAG wants a better deal than the other Hollywood guilds.
What they conveniently left out is the fact that the deal they are offering includes rollbacks no other guilds had to accept. Those other deals also included new media loopholes that would prevent SAG actors from sharing in the studios’ success in any meaningful way when this technology inevitably explodes. To find out how our proposals are different — not better or worse — but simply different than other unions’ deals, go to http://www.sag.org/tvtheatrical-negotiat… and download “Questions and Answers Regarding Negotiations” and “Fact Checking the AMPTP.”
A generation ago we cut the AMPTP slack in crafting a video deal under the assumption that it would be revisited and made fair once the technology took off. But for more than two decades the AMPTP continued to give us only a tiny sliver of the billions of dollars of windfall revenue they made selling videocassettes and DVDs.
For SAG members, the question is this: Do you trust the AMPTP? As our colleagues at the Writers Guild of America are learning, the AMPTP has its own interpretation of the deals it makes.
SAG does not want a strike. We made the decision to seek a strike authorization only after the AMPTP continued to stonewall through negotiations and mediation.
Now, the AMPTP is attempting to use today’s economic uncertainty to intimidate us into signing away our future for decades to come. Meanwhile, they spent $100,000 on an ad!
Obviously, we have their attention. Send the AMPTP a message by approving a strike authorization to empower SAG’s national board, so the AMPTP knows that we mean business.
Thanksgiving 2008 - Time For Some Positive News
This Thanksgiving arrives at a time when our country is in more than a little turmoil over the economy and divisive social issues. Families will gather on Thursday to celebrate one of America’s most cherished holidays. Whether you celebrate the season for Black Friday sales or for more traditional patriotic and spiritual reasons this may be a year when it’s a little more difficult to find something for which you’ll offer thanks.
Personally, with all the problems in the world, to say nothing of the challenges my fellow actors and I are facing in the watershed issues involved in our current contract stalemate, I’m ready for some GOOD NEWS. It’s time to focus on something that means even more to me than my career. What to do?
For my part, I’m reminded of a piece I wrote in this blog back in 2005. Look for the update at the end of this post entitled, I’m Thankful for…High School Football ?????? which was originally published 11/24/2005:
It’s Turkey Day tomorrow. Every year our family has a big Thanksgiving day get-together … usually 30-50, some years it’s more. It’s always a good time. Over the last two years, these family get-togethers have taken on added importance. This will be our 3rd Thanksgiving since Jane, my wife, was diagnosed with cancer. She was diagnosed a week before Thanksgiving, 2003.
What were we thankful for THAT year? Lots of things.
For faith in God. The knowledge and comfort that comes from knowing that there are already literally thousands of people, from coast to coast, praying for Jane’s recovery.
For Assurance. Assurance that whatever the course of her life in this world, her spiritual life is in order.
For good doctors. We were fortunate with Jane’s diagnosis. She has a kind of cancer that is often misdiagnosed…or has been in the past…because it just looks like a skin rash. A mammogram will often not detect IBC (Inflammatory Breast Cancer) because there are often no tumors present. Her doctors recognized the signs right away and she was in treatment within days.
For loving family. How do people make it through catastrophic events without the support of moms, dads, brothers and sisters? That’s rough. We were thankful that first Thanksgiving that we have a great family.
And yes, we were thankful for football. High school football in particular. You see, my wife comes parents (mom, Billie and her late father, Tom) who were high school football fanatics. Especially her mother. They’ve been going to high school football games for literally decades, even when they no longer had kids in school. It’s the FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS thing that is a reality in our family.
We support the Connally Cougars, a high school team from Pflugerville, Texas. Our son graduated from Connally almost 3 years ago and still, we are there in the stands every Friday night to watch football in what may be its purest form.
How is this relevant to Thanksgiving or to Jane’s recovery? Well…during treatment at the end of 2003 and through 2004, Jane set some ‘goals’ for herself. One goal, during her chemo, was to get to work as often as possible. She had chemo every two weeks. The week she had the chemo treatments got pretty hard on her, with her reaction to the drugs getting progressively worse as the week wore on.
By Friday of that week, she would, begin to turn the corner, feeling ever so slightly better. By Saturday, she was sitting up in bed. Sunday she could move about some without showing the pain in her eyes. And somehow, on Monday morning of the week after chemo, she was out of bed and off to work. That goal was part of what kept her going through the chemo. (She’s one of those crazy people who likes her job.)
Following the chemo there was surgery and then radiation treatment. Besides getting well enough to work, another goal was to get well enough to attend Connally’s games once the season started.
By the time the next football season rolled around, Jane had completed her treatment. Her body was pretty badly battered; her once long hair which had fallen out during chemo had been replaced by a really cute ’short do’. She was often exhausted as the regimen that had rendered her cancer free had taken a toll on her body. But, thank God, she was cancer free.
One of the real ‘treats’ for her since becoming cancer free has been to resume her status as a loyal Connally Cougar fan. Last season Connally surprised the Texas football world by making it all the way to the State semi-final game. The team started off the season 0-3, then ripped off 10 straight wins to get to within one game of the State Championship. They played a highly favored team from Kilgore and lost a hard fought battle 10-7.
That brings us to this Thanksgiving. Jane is still cancer free. And we are thankful for that.
She is still undergoing treatment, as IBC has a nasty habit of returning. Jane is monitored closely by her oncologist and takes regular infusions of Herceptin, a drug with a lot of potential as a cancer beater in certain patients. And she is still a Connally Cougar football fan.
This Saturday Jane, Billie and I will board the fan bus and be in the stands in San Antonio when the Cougars - especially seniors QB Steven Sheffield, MLB Nathan Mann, WR Antwon Williams, WR Brandon Williams, RB Nigel Lott, RB Patrick Morris - take on Flour Bluff in the Quarterfinal game for this year’s state championship. Win or lose, the Cougars (11-1) have enjoyed another great season. The qualities of faith, faithfulness, tenacity, courage, heart and strength of character that we’ve seen exhibited in the young men of the Connally football team are the same qualities I’ve observed for 33 years in my wife, Jane….but nevermore so than in the time since November, 2003 when we heard a doctor say those words you don’t want to hear - “you have cancer”.
I am thankful for this team and for all the smiles I’ve seen them put on the face of the toughest, most courageous person I’ve ever known.
Good luck Cougars. C Ready.
Update:
It’s been three years since that original post. So, what has happened?
As I write this Jane is in good health and remains cancer free. The truth is that IBC, her ‘brand’ of cancer, is not curable. But the landscape has changed greatly since she was first diagnosed. Truthfully, when Jane was first diagnosed, the existing data didn’t give us much reason to hope. Given that IBC is more often now correctly diagnosed, that there have been improvements in treatment regimens and medicines, the outlook is much more positive now than it was five years ago.
At her most recent checkup, Jane’s oncologist suggested she consider having her ‘port’ removed. She no longer needs it for medication and it presents some risk of infection. So…we’ve come a LONG way.
This Thanksgiving, like all those since 2003, I have something to truly be thankful for. Something that is bigger than SAG and the AMPTP, bigger than my career or lack thereof. I’m thankful to God that this journey with my sweet wife is ongoing.
And what about the Cougars?
The Connally Cougars prevailed in their contest vs Flour Bluff in a hard fought contest that cost Connally three of its starting players due to injury. Connally went on to play in their second straight State Semi-Final contest. The loss of their starting wide receiver, fullback and middle linebacker to injuries in the Flour Bluff game cost Connally ultimately was too much for the Cougars to overcome. They fought hard but lost. A downer end to a GREAT season. And we were there. More importantly, Jane was there.
The past two seasons have not been as kind to the Cougars who have struggled to rebuild with a new coach and new players. But we’ve been able to continue our support for the team by making their games our own personal FRIDAY NIGHT LIGHTS tradition.
I hope anyone reading this can find something they, too can be thankful for.
Tommy G. Kendrick