Self-described ‘working class actor’ John Cygan offers his take on the deal that AFTRA signed and why SAG should not agree to that same deal. What do you think?
Archive for the ‘AFTRA’ category
A Working Class Actor Looks At The Deal That AFTRA Signed
February 11th, 2009Actor Scott Wilson and David Clennon on SAG, Residuals and the AMPTP
February 6th, 2009You probably know the names Scott Wilson and David Clennon, but even if you don’t immediately snap to their name, you’ll surely know their faces. Each of these men has a long and impressive body work as professional actors. Their comments on the importance of residual income are comments that I agree with wholeheartedly. Check out this video:
SHAKE UP AT SAG – NATIONAL EXEC DIR DOUG ALLEN FIRED
January 27th, 2009What’s a non-star, just want to make a decent living, actor supposed to think? Here’s the latest from the SAG soap opera:
Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2009 15:34:05 -0800
To: SAG National Board of Directors and Alternate National Directors
Subject: Message from Doug Allen
I have been informed by SAG counsel that the National Board has terminated my employment as National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator of Screen Actors Guild. I am disappointed in the board’s decision, which was made by written assent, and I am proud of my record as SAG’s NED and Chief Negotiator.
I wish Screen Actors Guild and its members success and I have been honored to serve them. I have particularly enjoyed leading the wonderful men and women on the SAG staff and serving with SAG’s National President Alan Rosenberg and National Secretary-Treasurer Connie Stevens.
I have made some wonderful friendships with many SAG elected leaders, members and staff and will cherish those friendships forever.
My best wishes to you all,
Doug Allen
For a closer look at what transpired today I suggest everyone check out:
SAG Chief Negotiator Doug Allen’s Letter to SAG Membership
January 18th, 2009
If any more evidence were required to demonstrate the severely dysfunctional nature relationships that define SAG leadership, read on. Now it seems the board can’t agree to withdraw the strike authorization proposal and ask for a vote on the contract. Someday this will end…won’t it?
Dear Member,
On October 19, your National Board voted by 97% – 3% to send out a strike authorization ballot to members if mediation in the TV/Theatrical contract failed. We made a determined effort to mediate the contract negotiations but could not reach agreement in the face of the AMPTP’s refusal to compromise. After mediation failed, a number of national board members publicly repudiated the board’s almost unanimous decision to ask the members to authorize the board to decide whether, and if so when, to call a strike. Although I believe giving the National Board the authorization to determine whether to call a strike is our best strategy, that strategy has been severely compromised by the division of a now deeply and publicly split National Board leadership. President Rosenberg and I called a special meeting of the National Board to attempt to resolve those differences. That board meeting ended with no action after two days and twenty four hours of continuous executive session. During the hours of that executive session, I proposed a compromise to move Screen Actors Guild forward. Because my subsequent letter to the board describing my proposal has been made public, I wanted you to hear from me what I proposed. If the National Board does not adopt this compromise, or otherwise change the decision the board made in October, the strike authorization referendum will be conducted, with ballots sent to every eligible member for a vote.
Please read my letter to the National Board. I encourage you to communicate with your elected leadership and me your views on this subject.
In unity,
Doug Allen National Executive Director & Chief Negotiator
Doug Allen’s Letter to the National Board of Directors January 14, 2009
Dear SAG National Board Members and Alternates,
Because the executive session of our recent extraordinary National Board meeting occurred without my presence in the room, I want to directly communicate several points to all board members and alternates.
I began and ended my report to the National Board on January 12 by stating that I have followed and always will follow the directives of the National Board expressed by a unanimous or majority vote. Under my leadership all SAG staff has complied and will comply with those directives as well. I also said that I am by SAG constitution and by employment contract accountable to the board for my performance.
I welcome your review of that performance and respectfully request only that, in the interest of fairness, such review include the opportunity for me to discuss with the board any comments, questions or issues you wish to raise, not in lieu of executive session discussion, but prior to such discussion.
It is unfortunate that the important matters contained in the National Board meeting agenda were not accomplished at the meeting January 12 and 13. I know that opinions vary sharply on why that happened. From my perspective, to the extent AMPTP positions or actions are the problem, the solution cannot be determined by how intensely you fight among yourselves.
Regarding the TV/Theatrical negotiations, and the sharply divided opinions on the board about how to proceed, I offered the following suggestion to a cross section of Guild leaders during the period of the executive session. I asked that they discuss the suggestion with other board members in attendance. I proposed that the strike authorization referendum be suspended and that management’s offer be put to the membership in a ratification vote. I also proposed that, before that membership ratification vote, we meet immediately with the AMPTP to determine to what extent, if any, they are willing to improve their last offer, to maximize its chances for ratification. I further proposed that the offer then be sent to the members with Pro and Con statements from National Board members and that otherwise the Guild would remain neutral during any member debate regarding ratification. This process will give Screen Actors Guild members the opportunity to formally express themselves on the bargaining issues.
This suggestion was communicated to some, but not all board members in attendance, and apparently was rejected by some who heard it, at least in part, because they believe I could not be “trusted” to implement it. Since I am the one proposing it and since I have never acted contrary to the directives of the National Board, that is not a reasonable objection. In any case, if it is the decision of the National Board to proceed as I have proposed, I assure you that the staff and I will carry out your decision faithfully and diligently.
I will convene an Officers’ call this week to discuss this suggestion and how it might be considered and implemented. I encourage all board members to discuss these issues with the Guild officers or with me in advance of the call.
There are no more important issues before us than the conclusion of the TV/Theatrical Contract negotiations and the initiation of the Commercial Contract negotiations. Super-heated rhetoric through the press will not contribute to our success on behalf of the members. Working together to resolve your differences will.
Doug Allen
The WGA responds to the AMPTP “check is in the mail” press release
December 2nd, 2008“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.”
SAG and the AMPTP trade press releases
December 2nd, 2008The 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
December 2nd, 2008Dear 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.
SAG and AMPTP MEDIATION FAILS – STRIKE VOTE COMING
November 23rd, 2008
For some reason a couple of recent posts have disappeared so I’m republishing the following information. The sessions between SAG, AMPTP and a federal MEDIATOR went nowhere last week and now SAG is saying it will ask the membership for a strike authorization vote. Even though I have no desire to see a strike, I also feel that the current contract offer from the AMPTP is not only inadequate it is designed to undermine the entire residuals system that accounts for much of any film/tv actor’s income.
Add in the fact that the WGA is threatening a suit vs the AMPTP for not paying residuals on so called NEW MEDIA content as required in the contract that AMPTP insists is their ‘last best offer’ to SAG and the situation just gets muddier.
HERE’S THE SAG STATEMENT:
“Our leadership was optimistic that federal mediation would help to move our negotiations forward, but despite the Guild’s extraordinary efforts to reach agreement, the mediation was adjourned shortly before 1:00 AM today.
“Management continues to insist on terms we cannot responsibly accept on behalf of our members. As previously authorized by the National Board of Directors, we will now launch a full-scale education campaign in support of a strike authorization referendum. We will further inform our members about the core, critical issues unique to actors that remain in dispute.
“We have already made difficult decisions and sacrifices in an attempt to reach agreement. Now it’s time for SAG members to stand united and empower the national negotiating committee to bargain with the strength of a possible work stoppage behind them.
“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 our members and their families.
“No timeline has been set for the mailing or return of the strike authorization ballots.”
And the AMPTP RESPONSE:
“The AMPTP accepted the federal mediator’s invitation to meet with SAG in hopes of concluding our seventh major agreement of 2008. The Producers met for two days with SAG at the request of federal mediator Juan Carlos Gonzalez. The parties were unable to reach an agreement and the mediator has adjourned the mediation process.”
