Posts Tagged ‘Negotiations’

IATSE GETTING THE ‘SAG’ TREATMENT FROM AMPTP

February 26th, 2009

For some time now I’ve wondered why SAG wasn’t getting more support from our fellow workers in the film industry as we try to come to a contract agreement with the AMPTP. If you read the various forums, most of the talk has been of the ‘just settle the contract so we can all get back to work’ variety. AFTRA signed the deal. WGA signed the deal. Just get on with it. Stop being a bunch of overpaid, pompous asses and sign the deal. Revisit the issues you don’t like on the next negotiation.

Here’s what I know:

The AMPTP says they can’t make any money on so called NEW MEDIA (internet delivery of new product) if they pay actors what they pay for Network TV or Cable TV, especially the residuals that actors earn for reruns.

Really? Want to see some recent residuals I got for Cable TV usage?:

CPT Holdings, Inc. 12.19.2008 $29.60 Net Amount: 19.93
Payor: CPT Holdings, Inc.

Columbia Tristar Television, Inc. 12.18.2008 $14.65 Net Amount: 9.87
Payor: Columbia Tristar Television, Inc.

Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. 12.04.2008 $72.59 Net Amount: 48.89
Payor: Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp.

These residual payments may make me blush, but it’s not from embarrassment of being over paid. These are the kind of residuals that come from taking the AMPTP at their word.

Apparently that cable TV ‘experiment’ has worked out pretty well for 20+ years but the actors have never able to significantly improve on the deal we cut with the AMPTP when the pleading from the producers was ‘don’t kill this infant technology’.

Regardless of the opinion of how SAG negotiations were handled by the now defunct team of Rosenberg and Allen, hardly anyone I’ve spoken with or read has offered the opinion that the AMPTP offer to SAG is a good deal for actors. Good? It’s not even a reasonable deal.

Universally it seems it is understood that the deal that AFTRA and WGA signed are not ones that the guilds can be happy with or proud of. Yet SAG, because of an inexplicable lack of communication skills among other reasons, has let itself and ‘the actors’ become the punching bag for the rest of the industry. Gotta hand it to AMPTP for looking like the guys in the white hats. Unlike the guilds, the producers have played their hand beautifully.

If actors give up the contracted guarantee of residual income from television and films because they are now distributed (streamed or downloaded) via the internet, then frankly I’m left to ponder: WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF MEMBERSHIP IN SAG?

Actors by and large simply do not work enough, even at current rates, to make a living in the profession without residual income. Even WITH residual income most actors don’t make a real living from SAG wages. Why do I continue to turn down non union work when the new contract gives producers the okay to produce non union?

Once again we’re told to accept this deal now and we’ll ‘revisit’ the issues when the technology is more mature. Uh. Sure.

Well now it seems that the IATSE folks (from whom SAG has received little public support as our own contract woes have dragged on and on) are having their own issues with their leadership and with the AMPTP.

Nikke Finke’s site has a very good piece today about the IATSE contract situation.

Here is a section of the post on today’s DHD website:

… the IATSE/AMPTP Memo Of Agreement which opponents are calling “the worst concessionary contract” that the Hollywood locals have ever seen. As one activist in the International Cinematographers Guild emailed his IATSE Local 600 members: “So far as I’m concerned, the MOA gives away employment opportunities in New Media, guts our health plan, and gives no security to those who work on a day to day, or part-time, basis. This contract gives away every reason I can think of for belonging to a union. On top of that, it sews up ‘jurisdiction’ over the Internet which means that no group can create an alternative union that might fight for realistic wages and reasonable terms and conditions of employment.”

Substitute “SAG” for “IATSE” and it just sounds like more of the same from the AMPTP. So now, IATSE members who face loss of insurance benefits and loss of a livable wage from NEW MEDIA, how does it feel to be in the position SAG members have been in for the past 8 months? It’s not that easy to ‘just accept the deal’ is it?

A couple of pull quotes from the comments on Finke’s site:

…The New Media contract issues should be a bigger focus for all IATSE members. You might have your 300 or 400 hours to get your teeth cleaned every six months but you won’t be making enough on a “Web Episode” with no real guide lines on rates or staff requirements to make your house or rent payments.

New Media is the future. It should be made under the Basic Hollywood Agreement…

…And I hope that all members can read here, the Facebook site, or 400hours.com to see that anyone who votes in favor of this contract is voting himself, or herself, out of union protection in new media, voting themselves out of a share of future earnings, and possibly voting themselves out of their health care.

This contract, in conjunction with the contracts of the last twenty years, takes a gigantic step forward in dismantling our union and union protections. VOTE NO. VOTE “AGAINST RATIFICATION”.

Furthermore, now I hope all my brothers and sisters in IA can see how foolish it is to not support our sister guilds of WGA, DGA, and SAG…

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Posted in AFTRA, AMPTP, Actors, Alan Rosenberg, DOUG ALLEN, IATSE, NOW MEDIA, New Media, Nikki Finke, SAG, SAG Membership, Streaming Video, Strike, Tommy G. Kendrick, WGA

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SAG and AMPTP Still Talking per Allen

August 4th, 2008

Screen Actors Guild LogoSAG members received the following missive from National Exec. Director and Chief Negotiatior, Doug Allen. The impression one would get from reading Daily Variety or listening to other press sources is that there is no ongoing communication and SAG is just stalling with no plan of action in place.

Some of the conventional wisdom has been that the AMPTP is cooling its heels until a new, hopefully more AMPTP-friendly SAG board is elected and takes over in October. While that might seem like a solid line of thinking there is a flaw. The current negotiating team will NOT be replaced even if a more AMPTP friendly bunch are elected to the board. This negotiation will continue with the current negotiating team until a deal is finally struck.

Here is Allen’s letter to the membership:

August 3, 2008

Dear Screen Actors Guild Member,

Your negotiators are working every day to successfully conclude negotiations for a successor agreement to our TV/Theatrical contract. We have not yet closed the gap with the employers’ negotiators, but National President Alan Rosenberg, the National Negotiating Committee co-chairs from the Regional Branch Division, New York and Hollywood and I remain focused on this effort.

Right now, that involves small group meetings and exchanges with the employers, their AMPTP representatives and a core group of leaders in both organizations. Substantive progress is more likely in a less formal atmosphere. Negotiators can talk more productively, exchange ideas and define a short path leading to a conclusion. Informal communication is routine in labor talks and, in fact, occurred in other Guilds’ negotiations this year.

The full committees and relevant staff of the AMPTP and SAG together number more than 100 people. This large group is extremely effective in framing the issues in negotiations, but unwieldy as we transition to focused, directed discussion. In fact, the full 100-member negotiating group probably will not need to meet across the table again until we shake hands over a deal.

You will not doubt read spin suggesting that there is dead silence between our sides. Progress doesn’t have to occur directly across a table. Discussions through alternative channels are ongoing as we work toward a fair deal for actors as soon as possible.

Your interest in and support of the key issues like jurisdiction and residuals for all new media have been invaluable to our negotiations, as was the 68-0 vote of our National Board in the resolution of July 26, 2008. This unanimous vote from the board members who represent you in the Regional Branch Division, New York Division and Hollywood Division was a meaningful reaffirmation of SAG’s unity. Solidarity by the SAG Board and SAG members sends an important, powerful signal to management that efforts to divide us aren’t working and that actors are united on the issues.

We also know that you remain concerned about other key bargaining priorities such as, for example, product integration, force majeure, stunt performers and background actors’ issues. Be assured that these and our other priorities continue to be in the forefront of our efforts on your behalf.

We will stay in touch with you to report on our efforts and hope that you will also stay in touch with us. Continue to email your questions and comments to  Contract2008 at sag.org (this is an email address not a web link).

Thank you for your continued support and solidarity.

In unity,

Doug Allen
National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator

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Posted in AFTRA, AMPTP, Actors, Alan Rosenberg, NOW MEDIA, New Media, Producers, Residuals, Right to Work, SAG, Strike, Tommy G. Kendrick

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SAG AND AMPTP – SIDEBAR SECRETS

July 16th, 2008

SAG 2008 Contract Negotiations
July 16, 2008

Dear Screen Actors Guild Member:

Small contingents of the negotiating committees for Screen Actors Guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers met for two hours today at AMPTP headquarters in Sherman Oaks. Both parties agreed to keep the contents of today’s meeting confidential.

We will continue to update you as information is available.

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Posted in AFTRA, AMPTP, Actors, Alan Rosenberg, Producers, Residuals, SAG, Strike

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AFTRA Vote Results Announcement – Tonight’s The Night

July 8th, 2008

AFTRA LOGOScreen Actors Guild LogoAll votes have been cast and per Daily Variety:

“Ballots are due at 5 p.m.Tuesday in Everett, Wash., home to the independent ballot-counting firm Integrity Voting Systems.”

An announcement is expected this evening on the results. SAG and the AMPTP are scheduled to meet again on Thursday, 7/10.

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Posted in AFTRA, AMPTP, Actors, SAG, Strike

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Where Have All The Viewers Gone? Impact on SAG, AFTRA, AMPTP Negotiations

May 13th, 2008

The big sticking point in the now on-hold negotiations between SAG and AMPTP apparently centered around actor’s compensation from DVD, Cable, Internet Original Programming, Video Streaming and other so called ‘New Media’ distribution channels.

Diane Holloway’s column in today’s Austin American Statesman touches on this issue, though she isn’t discussing the negotiations or a possible actor’s strike as such.

The writers’ strike crippled the current season and contributed to a precipitous viewer plunge. According to trade publications, shows returning after the three-month absence lost as much as 30 percent of their pre-strike audience. And ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox this season expect to see a 17 percent decline of their combined audience.

This has been an ongoing trend for a while. Last year’s dropoff, the networks explained, happened because Daylight Savings Time came earlier than usual. Nobody actually bought that. The strike will be blamed this year, perhaps more effectively.

It’s still unclear exactly where network viewers have gone, but DVDs, recorded programs, cable and Internet viewing have contributed to that great sucking sound that once was network TV’s dominance.

And to add a bit of evidence to just how dramatically (no pun intended) things are changing in television distribution, there is this:

“Friday Night Lights,” whose death knell sounded for two seasons, got picked up for a third season in April, after NBC struck a deal with DirectTV to share production costs and give the Austin-based show an exclusive run on satellite first.

It’s great news for Texas film production that FNL is still alive and will again shoot in Austin. The fact that the show is alive because DirectTV stepped in to share production costs and thus gets an exclusive first run on the show says something about how actors and their guilds have to look at the current and future distribution landscape.

The producers will probably look at the information above and say “we can’t afford the current compensations structures..our network audience is smaller…we need to roll back actor’s rates.”

But overall, has the size of the audience for filmed, taped, or digitally captured entertainment diminished? Or has it actually increased with the population and just spread out beyond the confines of broadcast television?

Twenty years or so back when the producers and actors were negotiating a deal that included compensation to actors for cable usage, the producers loudly claimed that the industry couldn’t possibly support the same scale of payments to actors that they were receiving on network tv.

‘Don’t kill this infant technology’ was their battle cry. So, the actors relented and settled for deals on cable that, to this day, are insufficient. And now can anyone (leaving content aside) distinguish cable programming from network TV? Yet the compensation to actors, particularly the residual structure, is stuck in the ‘don’t kill the infant technology’ days.

With this history in mind, and with the obvious shift away from income streams such as network TV rerun residuals to DVD distribution of TV product, SAG is in the position of once again accepting a bad deal for actors that will get worse over time, holding out for a better deal through negotiations, or possibly striking to get the producers to move off their current stance.

Over the next few days, it will become more apparent how the current negotiations with AFTRA will impact the current state of affairs. Per Daily Variety:

AFTRA and the majors have launched a second week of primetime negotiations for a deal that’s expected to do little toward easing the town’s strike fears — since SAG still won’t have a new feature-primetime contract once AFTRA makes its deal.

The Screen Actors Guild hasn’t yet responded to an invitation from the majors to resume negotiations May 28. It also hasn’t yet decided whether to ask its 120,000 members for a strike authorization, which requires 75% approval.

And with SAG’s current deal expiring on June 30, the lingering uncertainty has put the brakes on any feature greenlights.

SAG’s scheduled a town hall meeting to update members on the negotiations next Monday in Los Angeles.

Stay tuned. Read the entire Daily Variety article.

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Posted in AFTRA, AMPTP, Actors, Friday Night Lights, Producers, SAG

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AMPTP in Catbird Seat: SAG and AFTRA Battle Each Other

May 8th, 2008

On Wednesday, SAG negotiators proclaimed SAG and AMPTP were ‘within a few hours’ from a done deal when talks were ended. Time to move on to the AFTRA talks which had been delayed at SAG’s request in an attempt to finish the negotiations. AMPTP says the SAG proclamation of a near deal is mistaken, the two sides were still far apart. And so it goes.

Now AMPTP and AFTRA begin their negotiations for a contract that will represent a large number of the same actors who will be covered by an eventual SAG deal. SAG and AFTRA are going at the negotiations separately this year for the first time in 30 years, having broken ranks via acrimony over a largely technology driven turf war.

From Daily Variety:

SAG’s failure to reach an agreement with the majors may also leave it at risk of losing new TV shows to AFTRA once the latter’s deal is complete.

AFTRA noted in a message to members that it had split off from joint bargaining with SAG in late March following a series of bitter jurisdictional disputes. AFTRA president Roberta Reardon said the negotiations represent the first time in three decades in which SAG and AFTRA haven’t negotiated together.

“While some have questioned the decision to negotiate apart, know that the decision was not taken lightly,” she said. “Through a constant barrage over the past 15 months, our once-positive relationship with SAG deteriorated, making it impossible now to continue joint bargaining. The AFTRA national board decided on March 29 to suspend joint bargaining because the first and foremost expenditure of AFTRA’s resources must be deployed in facing down management in negotiations, enforcing members’ contracts and caring for members’ interests.”

In ‘the old days’ things were a bit easier for the two guilds to divide up. SAG basically represented anything shot on film and AFTRA represented actors for radio and projects captured on video tape.

Technological changes have blurred those lines considerably in recent years. The advent of high definition video means some television product and even some theatrical projects that formerly would have shot on film are now lensing on video.

Some of these issues were at the heart of an attempt within the past several years to merge the two guilds into one body. SAG membership narrowly shot that idea down and now, here we are with the two guilds, both representing actors – many of the very same actors who hold dual guild membership – battling each other in a turf war that leaves the producers in position to play the SAG vs AFTRA game.

Why would the AMPTP settle before they meet with AFTRA? AMPTP seems to have taken its cue from Rush Limbaugh’s “Operation Chaos” that is playing out as part of the Democratic Party presidential primary entertainment extravaganza.

This SAG vs AFTRA situation has to be a delight to the AMPTP. Give the actors more time to fight each other. Let the two guilds argue and spin out of focus and beat each other up and we’ll (AMPTP) pick up the pieces? Is that their strategy?

Indications are that AFTRA will be more amenable to a less favorable deal than SAG is seeking. Settling quickly could put AFTRA into a position to poach territory formerly controlled by SAG.

Since the two guilds have decided to pursue a us vs them strategy where the ‘them’ is the other guild rather than the producer’s organization, the sure loser in this mess looks to be non-star actors….the actors who actually rely on the collective bargaining agreements to try to earn a living wage.

While the issues on the table – DVD residuals, Internet and other new media compensation – are watershed issues and strike worthy issues, the tea leaves seem to be suggesting that a strike is not in the cards. And neither, it seems, is a substantial improvement over the inadequate residual structure now in place for DVD and other media or for reasonable rates for made for internet, streaming video, mobile, etc.

Cue the celebrities to line up and make pronouncements about getting a deal done without a strike. No sane person wants a strike. That’s the second worst option in these negotiations.

The very worst option is for SAG to settle without achieving significant residuals gains and without getting a reasonable piece of the developing new media pie. Improvements in these areas are mandatory if the average actor – not the celebrity who negotiates rates well above the contract minimums – is going to be able to earn a living in the film business.

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Posted in AFTRA, AMPTP, Actors, Producers, SAG, Strike

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SAG Negotiations Update sent to SAG Members

April 22nd, 2008

SAG 2008 Contract NegotiationsSAG CONTRACT 2008 REPORT

Number 1

April 22, 2008

SAG and the AMPTP have been meeting since negotiations began on April 15. Our proposals address many issues facing today’s middle-income actors. Below is information on this important topic.

Middle-Income Actors…Are You Feeling the Squeeze?

Most middle class actors are. One of our top priorities in our current TV/ Theatrical negotiations is the plight of middle-income actors. We’ve heard it over and over again,…you are not earning the same income that you did several years ago for the same work.

How things look for middle-income actors today

• The average annual TV/Theatrical earnings for middle-income actors is approximately $52,000 a year.

• When actors are employed, their overall compensation is decreasing.

• Inflation adjusted average session earnings are dropping.

• Average inflation adjusted residuals decreased 7% from 2003 to 2007.

• Changes in the broadcast business model mean fewer employment opportunities for actors.

• Fewer network reruns mean less residual payments for actors.

• Realty TV has taken a big bite out of your residuals, and initial compensation for actors.

• Under current contract terms, it takes a day player at least 38 days at scale to qualify for our Pension & Health Plan 1 health insurance.

• Major Role actors (featured, guests stars, etc.) have to work on FIVE half hour shows, with 1 network replay each, to qualify for Plan 1, and seven shows without reruns.

Here’s what we are asking for

1. Reasonable Increases in minimums for all categories of performers.

2. Reasonable Increases in Major Role Minimums.

Minimums have become maximums. The overwhelming majority of Major Role actors are not able to negotiate salaries. Their jobs are being offered at Major Role Minimum (“Top of Show”) as a take it or leave it proposition.

3. Protections and Compensation for Product Integration.

Actors are being forced to incorporate clumsy dialog and action in television series and motion pictures more and more each season. We are seeking reasonable solutions, which include compensation and pre-approval for performing product integration. This is not the soda can on the table anymore. It’s scripted and is an integral part of the story and plot development.

4. Increases in Money Breaks.

5. Improvements in Terms and Conditions for background Actors, Stunt Performers, Dancers and Singers.

Please note that the above is not intended to be an exhaustive list of our proposals . It is just intended to keep you informed of the highlights.

We will keep you apprised of developments as the negotiation process continues. Check SAG 24/7 website at www.sag.org.

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Posted in AMPTP, Actors, SAG

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