AMPTP TO SAG - ‘FINAL OFFER’ OR ‘LAST, BEST, FINAL OFFER’

While pundits in Hollywood debate whether the AMPTP has actually presented their ‘last, best and final offer’ or just their ‘final offer’, and what the difference is between a ‘final’ offer and a ‘last, best’ final offer, the two sides have broken off talks until next week.

SAG says it needs time to study the AMPTP proposal which the press says is the same deal that AFTRA is now voting on. What SAG really needs is time for AFTRA to count the votes on ratification of its deal with the producers. If the AFTRA deal is voted down, which doesn’t seem likely, SAG negotiators will have at least one arrow left in their quiver. If AFTRA delivers a ‘Yes’ vote to the producers, then SAG is really up against the wall.

SAG would presumably be left to settle for the AFTRA deal or call for a strike vote. As unlikely as it seems that AFTRA will vote down their agreement, it seems even more unlikely that 75% of SAG membership will vote for a strike. Not now. Not with the downturn in Hollywood real estate and the general softening of the national economy. Not with SAG being the last guild to settle with producers. Fair or not, SAG is in the no-win position of being at least the perceived culprit that is holding up production jobs for thousands of workers on both sides of the camera.

The AFTRA ratification results will supposedly be in around July 8th. Maybe SAG will find a way to settle prior to that date. That would mean SAG has to settle by Monday or be in a tight spot following announcement of results of the AFTRA deal.

Industry blogs are buzzing with stories of a conspiracy between AFTRA and the AMPTP to help AFTRA make a power grab in territory that has traditionally be under SAG jurisdiction. With AFTRA willing to contract work for lower rates, the theories go, AMPTP will funnel future ‘film’ work away from SAG and into AFTRA hands.

How can this happen since SAG represents actors for film? Well, since movies are now being shot on media other than film, there may be some upcoming disputes as to which guild has jurisdiction.

Conspiracy theories of one actor’s guild vs another. Yuck. Not a pretty picture whether it’s true or not.

Whatever happens over the next few weeks until SAG settles with the AMPTP, it looks like the business is in for some bumpy times in the not too distant future.

AMPTP PUSHES ALL IN - ‘FINAL OFFER’ IS ON THE TABLE

We don’t know much about what’s going on in the SAG and AMPTP talks but according to Daily Variety, the studio’s ‘final offer’ is now on the table.

With SAG’s feature-primetime contract expiring, the majors have turned up the pressure by making the guild a final offer with increases valued at over $250 million over the three-year terms of the deal.

The “final offer” move — a tactic never used during the WGA strike — came Monday afternoon in the 42nd day of negotiations following five weeks of highly unproductive talks. But the moguls also said they won’t lock out SAG while the guild toppers ponder the deal.

“As SAG’s leadership considers our final offer, we will continue for now to work under the terms of the old contract as current productions wind down,” the AMPTP said.

SAG hasn’t responded to the final offer publicly but members received a ‘end of contract’ email today that states in part:

Dear Screen Actors Guild Member:

Your national negotiating committee and the industry bargained throughout the weekend and are continuing bargaining today. Nonetheless, the Screen Actors Guild Codified Basic and Television Agreements which cover television programs and motion pictures expire tonight at midnight. All members should continue to report to work and to audition for new work past the expiration date until further notice from the Guild. Such work will be covered under the terms of the expired television and theatrical agreements.

So the situation is that there is no call for a strike vote, actors are to keep showing up for work under the expiring contract and the producers have made what they say is their ‘final offer’. The producers COULD call for a lock out of actors at the expiration of the contract but so far have not taken that move. And, that doesn’t seem likely.

Why would the producers want to make a move that makes them look like corporate bad guys in this fight when SAG has allowed itself to be portrayed as the party most likely to bring financial ruin to its membership? It is more likely that the AMPTP will continue to stress the discord between SAG and AFTRA, continue to remind the public that they have made SAG ‘the same’ offers that have already been accepted by the WGA, DGA and AFTRA and continue to recount the dollars and jobs lost during the WGA strike.

This vamping is likely to continue until the results of the AFTRA ratification vote are known. If this were a purely political race, the pollsters would already be able to tell us all which way the AFTRA vote was going and there might be a late night announcement tonight that the two sides have settled.

Maybe I’ll stay up extra late tonight, just in case.

Top 5 Weekend Box Office

SAG and AMPTP still talking as Contract Expiration Nears

Below is the latest email blast sent to SAG member actors with an update on negotiations with the AMPTP:

June 29, 2008

To all SAG members:

Thank you, SAG members! Thousands of you have signed the “Solidarity Statement” over the past four days. In fact, we are working hard to keep up with the overwhelming response and adding your names as fast as we can.

You have pledged your resolve to stand with your national negotiating committee. Thousands of you from all around the country are telling us you voted NO on the AFTRA contract and support our goal to raise the bar for all actors and their families.

Unfortunately, there are a few press reports and blogs erroneously reporting misinformation based on false statements made by a few people who oppose our objectives to continue negotiating for a fair contract. Some have even implied that a strike is looming this week. Don’t let these scare tactics fool you.

President Alan Rosenberg issued the following statement today to set the record straight.

“We have taken no steps to initiate a strike authorization vote by the members of Screen Actors Guild. Any talk about a strike or a management lockout at this point is simply a distraction. The Screen Actors Guild national negotiating committee is coming to the bargaining table every day in good faith to negotiate a fair contract for actors.”

Negotiations are continuing today and our committee met into the evening last night. Your national negotiating committee, comprised of career actors who work regularly under SAG contracts, has volunteered countless hours working on your behalf. They are here in Sherman Oaks, forgoing time with their families and giving up work opportunities.

We will be here for as many hours as it takes to address the outstanding issues unique to actors that were NOT ADDRESSED in the pending AFTRA deal.

Here’s a partial list of our priorities:

* Union coverage for ALL new media productions.

* Residual payments for ALL new media programs (more info on this below).

* Increases in minimums, pension & health contributions, mileage reimbursements and compensation for background actors, stunt performers, and other middle-income actors.

* Address the growing practice of product integration within scripted programs.

* Reasonable increase in DVD residuals.

* Preserve Force Majeure protections.

Remember, this is not an attack on AFTRA. We are fighting to get the best contract for all actors. We are a democratic union and the majority of elected SAG leaders voted to inform and educate members about the AFTRA contract, and to urge you to VOTE NO. We hope SAG and AFTRA will bargain together on future contracts.

* We do want to clear up some confusion about some blog statements regarding AFTRA’s tentative agreement for made for new media programs with budgets under $15,000 per minute. Specifically, in a blog “clarifying “ nine AFTRA deal points, it is stated:

“New Media: If any member gets hired on a new media production, regardless of budget level, the whole production automatically goes union. period.” This statement is completely false.

Coverage is not automatic if AFTRA members are employed. The criteria tentatively agreed to does not include union membership. See item 17 in the AFTRA referendum for the complete list of what does trigger AFTRA coverage. In fact, AFTRA members could be employed on non-union productions if they don’t meet the test for “covered performer.” This is exactly why SAG is holding the line for all union new media productions. We don’t want non-union people taking your jobs!

* Many of you were also surprised at seeing a recent document AFTRA released to its broadcast members, urging them to pass the AFTRA contract even though they don’t work under actor contracts. The flyer stated, ”Even if you haven’t worked under this contract, it is important to all AFTRA members, including broadcasters.” Again, SAG is seeking the best terms and conditions possible for ACTORS, so we suggest you ask AFTRA about the broadcaster flyer.

Voting on the AFTRA Contract - Not an easy decision

So, I did what any deep thinking actor would do…I hovered my pencil over the ballot and, in a ouija board like moment, I let the pencil decide on my vote. So don’t blame me, actors who support the AFTRA deal, my pencil said NO.

Actually I spent time reading through the contract summary, spent time on the internet looking at what other actors had to say, for and against. I listened to the phone calls from Sandra Oh, AFTRA and Ed Asner. But truly, the call from Ed Asner was almost enough by itself to make me vote YES. ( I don’t care for the direction Ed took SAG during his tenure as SAG President…but that’s another story.)

In the end I had to decide if I trusted the producers. I don’t. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Every time I get a residual check for cable or DVD usage in the mail, I wince at the paltry sum I’m going to deposit. The fact is that over 20 years ago, the producers got SAG to accept what has turned out to be a woefully inadequate deal for off network residual income. The promise was that things would get better as the market matured. That has turned out to be a big lie.

Actors like Tom Hanks and Sally Field and James Cromwell who are all pitching for a YES vote simply don’t have to rely on residual income the way the typical working-man’s actor does. These high profile stars negotiate deals well above contract minimums and aren’t impacted by the CBA the way most of us are.

EXCEPT…that actors like Tom Hanks and others also have production deals. Yes, they are actors, but they are also producers. They have an interest in paying the day players and weekly players and guest stars as little as they can in order to maximize their earnings as producers. So be it. I understand that, but then I can’t turn around and trust that they have MY best interest at heart when they encourage me to sign a deal that has terrible implications for future residual income from the internet and other so-called ‘new media’.

In the end, I just don’t trust the producers enough to say Yes…so I VOTED NO.

I’m praying that there will be NO STRIKE. But I’m also praying that there will be a reasonably equitable deal for both sides.

Tommy G. Kendrick
SAG / AFTRA

Midlife Gals in Austin - Time for Some Humor

As I sit and ponder just how I should vote on the AFTRA contract it seems that it’s a good time for some humor. Today’s Austin American Statesman has a feature story about a couple of Austin women who have started their own humor blog called MIDLIFE GALS.

Check out this video from the site:

Thanks. I needed that.

Check out their blog at : Midlife Gals

SAG and AMPTP Gearing up for ‘final’ clash over contract

I haven’t posted anything here recently about the ongoing ‘talks’ between SAG and the AMPTP because there really hasn’t been anything new to report. SAG is more or less vamping with the AMPTP while they work furiously to convince dual guild members like myself to vote down the AFTRA agreement.

Yes, I received one of the calls from Sandra Oh from “Grey’s Anatomy”. I’d have been more likely to be impressed had the call not been a recorded message. At least then we could have talked about ‘Sideways’ or something more pleasurable than two bickering unions. The problem with the possibility of a Sandra Oh or any other highly paid actor/actress swaying my opinion is that I know they don’t really work within the confines of the CBA. I also don’t care about hearing from George Clooney or Tom Hanks or any other actor pulling down $20+ million a film.

The AFTRA and SAG contracts provide structure to deals made my attorneys for those who have ‘made it’ but these actors on hit shows or high dollar actors in films aren’t relying on the minimums laid out in our collective bargaining agreement in their own contracts with networks and studios. They have contracts that pay them well above any minimum established by the guilds’ agreements.

That is not to say that Sandra Oh is not right to urge rejection of the AFTRA guild. It’s just that I’d be much more likely to be swayed one way or the other by a call from some ‘middle class’ working actor who has a well thought out opinion about how this contract will impact his/her future as a union actor.

Right now SAG is spending a lot of time and money on its effort to derail the AFTRA agreement. There has been no strike authorization vote and as I’ve stated previously, I don’t expect that because SAG is none too sure that such a vote would pass. Then where would SAG be?

Per today’s Daily Variety, here’s the way the producer’s are thinking:

With negligible progress at the Screen Actors Guild negotiations, the majors are moving toward making the guild a last, best and final offer.

The “final offer” move — a tactic never used during the WGA strike — could come as early as next week, unless SAG changes course and backs away from an array of demands that are nonstarters for the companies, including an increase in DVD residuals and sweeter terms for new-media residuals than those achieved earlier this year by the DGA, WGA and AFTRA.

Talks, which hit their 34th day on Thursday, are said to have been highly unproductive during the past few weeks, with the exasperation level rising for both sides. Negotiations are set to resume today.

The biz is anticipating that production will mostly grind to a halt in another week and a half, even if SAG does not go on strike immediately after the June 30 expiration of its current feature-primetime contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (Daily Variety, June 17).

More than one option

While the exact timing of the final offer’s still in flux, it’s almost certain that the congloms would present it to SAG before June 30. Should the talks remain at an impasse at that point, it’s likely that studios and nets would pressure SAG by publicly highlighting the financial damage from the production slowdown and the 100-day WGA strike.

In a recent study at the Milken Institute, researchers asserted that the writers strike will cost California $2.1 billion in lost output this year and 37,000 jobs….

…The companies have stayed mum as to how SAG’s leaders may be swayed to accept a deal that largely mirrors the AFTRA terms, but it’s widely thought the most promising prospect would be in two actor-specific areas: maintaining the current protections in the force majeure language, under which performers on suspended TV series during a strike still receive a portion of their salaries, and establishing protections on product integration that would allow a thesp to veto appearing in a scenes written to make it seem that the actor is endorsing a product.

SAG has millions of dollars in strike-related force majeure claims pending against the producers, who are seeking to remove the requirement from the contract.

Frustration’s been mounting in recent days as it becomes increasingly clear that SAG won’t budge until the AFTRA results are announced around July 8. The AMPTP accused SAG last week of using the AFTRA vote to stall; SAG leaders have turned that vote into a referendum on its ongoing strategy of criticizing AFTRA for being too compliant with employers and for signing deals that encroached on SAG’s turf.

The split between AFTRA and SAG has become so acrimonious that one wonders peace will ever be restored between the two. The latest email blast from SAG contains this:

GET REAL ABOUT THE AFTRA DEAL

Screen Actors Guild Wants…..

REAL MONEY…..IN REAL ACTORS’ POCKETS

By now you’ve heard a lot about AFTRA’s tentative deal with the networks and studios. What you haven’t heard
is how much it’s really worth to actors. We know SAG actors have a lot at stake in the SAG TV/Theatrical negotiations,
and the numbers below prove it.

AFTRA’s Tentative Deal:

Currently covers only a handful of AFTRA series. The aggregate value of the increases achieved in their tentative deal
amounts to less than $5 million over three years (when valued using the AMPTP’s methodology and
based on AFTRA’s coverage over the past season.)

SAG:

Screen Actors Guild covers more than 90% of all primetime scripted dramatic television on the networks and pay
television, and covers ALL theatrical motion pictures. Total SAG earnings from network and pay TV, and
theatrical motion pictures over the most recent 3-year contract period exceeded $4 billion.

Did anyone else cringe at the ‘REAL ACTORS’ language?

I don’t particularly like the AFTRA deal. But the more this thing grinds on the more I realize I can’t support a strike.

If I thought we could strike and win significant concessions AND make up for all the money lost…to say nothing of houses lost, careers lost…during a strike I’d be more in favor of that tact. Been there, done that. Several times. Not too excited about doing it again anytime soon.

Paul Baker, Preston Jones and My Time at the Dallas Theater Center

When Preston Jones died in 1979 at the age of 43 he left behind a legacy in writing that is so rich that is remains as relevant today as it was in the 1970’s. That was one of the overriding impressions that struck me as I viewed Contemporary Theater of Dallas‘ production of Jones’ THE OLDEST LIVING GRADUATE this past weekend with a group of the other ‘first citizens’ of Bradleyville, Texas.

This article is not a review of the current production. For the truth is I simply don’t think I can be fair, certainly not impartial, to this production.

I was one of the lucky ones. One of those who was at the Theater Center when Preston Jones was writing the Trilogy shows, one of those who became an ‘original citizen of Bradleyville’, one who has Jones’ handwritten pages and rewrites; one of those who was in the rehearsal room as Randy Moore, under the direction of Mr. Baker, gave voice to a truly remarkable and literally unforgettable character, Colonel J.C. Kincaid in THE LAST MEETING OF THE KNIGHTS OF THE WHITE MAGNOLIA and subsequently in THE OLDEST LIVING GRADUATE.

To anyone near Dallas over the next several weeks, do yourself a favor and book a ticket to THE OLDEST LIVING GRADUATE at the CTD. You won’t have the same bias I brought to the show and you will see a solid production of a play that remains brilliantly funny and one that will leave you a bit breathless and misty-eyed at the end. That’s how good the writing is.

A little background:

In 1973 I entered the program at the Dallas Theater Center on the recommendation of my old college professor, Dr. S. Walker James who had studied under Paul Baker at Baylor University.

My wife Jane and I had two college friends in Dallas, Mike Russell and his wife, Pat. Mike Russell had entered the DTC program a year earlier and, on a visit back to Beaumont, had suggested I check out the Dallas program when I was looking for a graduate program in theater. I was accepted into the Theater Center apprentice program solely on the basis of the recommendation I received from Dr. James. To Dr. James and my old friend, Mike Russell, I owe a large debt of gratitude.

I arrived at the Dallas Theater Center at what I now see as something of a ‘golden age’ for the program there.

There was an acting company in place and some of the actors, designers and others involved in the running of the theater operation had been in Dallas with Mr. Baker since around 1959; others were there since 1963 when Baker split with Baylor University in a dispute over his staging of Eugene O’Neill’s LONG DAY’S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT.

Incoming students or ‘apprentices’ entered a graduate program that was then affiliated with Trinity University in San Antonio. The pace for an entering apprentice was demanding.

By day we students would take the various classes one would expect to find in a theater school: acting, voice and diction, movement, mime, writing, directing, design, etc. Classes were taught by Mr. Baker, Mary Sue Jones, Ken Latimer, Randy Moore, Norma Moore, John Figlmiller, Randy Tallman, Judith (Judy) Davis, actor/playwright Sally Netzel, Mona Pursley and other members of the acting company and by Trinity University professors such as playwright Eugene McKinney and other longtime Baker associates.

The group of apprentices attended classes during the morning hours and during the afternoons rehearsed for an upcoming show or worked on sets or costumes or lighting or sound or other production elements. The apprentices also formed the core of the crews that ran each show at night. Mixed in with these activities were rehearsals for scenes for acting and directing classes, studying theater history, etc.

If it seems like the theater students and company members were at the theater 24/7…that’s not too far from the truth. If this sounds like work, it was. If it sounds like fun, it most definitely was. In this way it was much like a typical college theater program.

The difference was that one could be immersed in the workings of a professional theater company and earn a graduate degree from Trinity University. I earned an MFA with an emphasis in acting from Trinity University, San Antonio but performed literally all of the degree work at the Dallas Theater Center. It was a very good arrangement.

There were two theaters in the DTC plant which was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. The main stage was the Kalita Humphreys Theater which seated an audience of around 400 as I recall. The other theater space was in the basement, a sectioned off portion adjacent to the scene shop area and called Down Center Stage which seated 50-60 patrons.

If you were an incoming apprentice and you were lucky, you might be cast in a supporting role in one or more of the season of shows. Of course every actor wanted to be in a show that played on the main stage but landing a role in a Down Center Stage production was nothing to be disappointed in.

So then, this was the environment I entered when I arrived as a fresh faced and skinny 23 year old from Beaumont, Texas. I had never heard of Preston Jones. That would soon change.

Part 2 - The Bradleyville Trilogy - Coming Soon

Actors Reunite in Dallas, Honor Preston Jones and Bradleyville Trilogy

Can it be that thirty something years have passed since I first walked through the doors of the Kalita Humphreys theater at the Dallas Theater Center, a nervous, totally green ‘actor’ straight out of Beaumont, Texas? It’s so hard to believe, but facts are facts and three decades have indeed since passed.

How lucky I was to be arrive at DTC to work with Paul Baker and his fabulous company of actors, writers, designers and technicians just as Preston Jones had written the plays that would come to be known as THE TEXAS TRILOGY: Last Meeting of the Nights of The White Magnolia, Lu Ann Hampton Laverty Oberlander and The Oldest Living Graduate.

This weekend I’ll be at a reunion as some of the original cast members from THE BRADLEYVILLE TRILOGY meet to see THE OLDEST LIVING GRADUATE at the Contemporary Theater of Dallas.

More next week.

SAG Plays Waiting Game on AFTRA Ratification

Don’t hold your breath for a resolution between SAG and the AMPTP before the June 30th contract expiration. With SAG lambasting the AFTRA agreement and attempting to derail ratification of that agreement, there will be no settlement until the outcome of the AFTRA deal is known. As Daily Variety says in today’s online edition:

With the SAG-AFTRA bloodbath in full fury, don’t expect a deal between the Screen Actors Guild and the majors any time soon.

SAG president Alan Rosenberg told Daily Variety that progress at the negotiating table has been elusive at best in recent sessions, and he admitted it’s unlikely that a deal will emerge by the June 30 expiration.

“Our progress has really slowed down ever since AFTRA made its deal,” he said Wednesday, following the 27th bargaining session with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers. Talks will resume this morning.

Rosenberg made his remarks shortly before an evening town hall meeting for members at the Harmony Gold Theater in Los Angeles. The event drew nearly 400 and evoked enthusiastic support for SAG’s stance against the AFTRA ratification, according to one eyewitness.

If only the public rhetoric were as measured and laid out as well as was the information received by SAG members in yesterday’s mail. The mail piece entitled HERE’S WHAT ACTORS NEED THAT AFTRA DIDN’T GET laid out seven areas that SAG finds deficient in the AFTRA deal.

The seven stated points of contention are: Working Actor Priorities, Full Contract Coverage in New Media, Residuals for Original New Media Programs, Product Integration Protection, Force Majeure, Improving DVD Residuals and An Increase in Mileage for the first time in 30 years.

Here are the issues in this list that I personally consider ‘hot button’ items:

Full Contract Coverage in New Media

Per the SAG piece, AFTRA has agreed to allow AMPTP signatory companies to produce programs in new media with ALL NON-UNION ACTORS.

Residuals for Original New Media Programs

Per SAG, “With one very narrow exception, management is refusing to pay ANY residuals for original new media programs. If the AFTRA deal terms apply and programming continues to move to the Internet, this could be the beginning of the end of residuals”

Product Integration Protection

Basically the idea is that producers, through product placement in a story line (not just in the background), get an actor to effectively perform a commercial for no additional fee to the performer. This is obviously a problem since many actors make a significant amount of their income from commercial work. If the actor is associated with a product in a tv episode, for instance, they could be unable to take on commercial work for a competing product.

Improving DVD Residuals

Per SAG, ” For too long our members have lived with the paradox that the DVD/home video residuals formula is the lowest in our contract, while DVDs remain the producers biggest source of revenue.”

The SAG proposal, said to be a ‘non starter’ by the AMPTP is for producers to pay P&H benefits on DVD residuals which results in a gain of 15% for actors.

While there are other issues in play, these are the main sticking points to a new deal. The fact that AFTRA has apparently agreed to new media production with no residual stream for actors is a major issue. This goes back to the old ‘don’t kill the infant technology’ argument during the negotiation of the cable tv deals. In my own case, since most of my residual income comes from epsodic and film residuals from cable, the terrible inadequacy of that old deal is something I deal with regularly. To accept a similar deal for new media is just not something I can support. If this type deal is made, frankly, I have to question my loyalty to AFTRA and SAG. I’m sure I will not be alone in this assessment.

While I have no stomach for a strike, and while I believe that such a move will be a disaster, I also know that whether there is a strike or not, the results of this negotiation will have a profound impact on my future relationship with SAG and AFTRA.