Tag: SAG

Latest SAG UpDate

Finally some news of the SAG negotiations.

Film and television actors ratcheted up pressure on Hollywood’s major studios on Wednesday when negotiators, stalled in labor talks with producers, sought backing to put a strike authorization vote to guild members.

Contract negotiators for the Screen Actors Guild, which is the largest U.S. actors union with some 120,000 members, passed a resolution seeking the endorsement of SAG’s national board for guild members to vote on whether to call a work stoppage which, if one occurred, would be the second halt this year.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents major studios, shot back with its own statement asking, “Is this really the time for anyone in the entertainment business to be talking about going on strike?”

But SAG said a strike authorization vote by members “is necessary to overcome the employers’ intransigence.”

A strike authorization ballot is not a vote on a work halt, but it does give union leaders leverage in the contract talks that stalled back in July after a final offer from the AMPTP.

SAG UpDate #9

Thgis is a part of the Labvor Day message from the Union.

“This is what Labor Day commemorates — the dedication, commitment and tremendous courage of labor unions and union members throughout history. It is a tribute to our first president, Ralph Morgan and to other guild leaders like former president James Cagney and board member Humphrey Bogart, but Labor Day is also a tribute to you. It is a day set aside to honor all unions, but for us, it is an opportunity to honor SAG and the 120,000 members who reside within it.

Our efforts to reach agreement with industry representatives continue and SAG’s negotiators want to hear from you about your thoughts on the TV/Theatrical contract negotiations and Screen Actors Guild’s bargaining priorities. You will be receiving an important publication from SAG over the next several days. This Special Bulletin was mailed to all members across the country this week. The publication contains comprehensive information about our negotiations. Please look for your copy to arrive in your mailbox in the next several days.”

I could find no other updates on the progress of the negotiations.

SAG UpDate #8

This is a statement released by SAG on 28 July 08.

Dear Screen Actors Guild Member,

The Screen Actors Guild National Board of Directors met Saturday and passed a resolution reaffirming its support for the National Negotiating Committee.

The resolution passed unanimously with a vote of 68 – 0 and states:
It is a core principle of Screen Actors Guild —

That no non-union work shall be authorized to be done under any Screen Actors Guild agreement and;

That all work under a Screen Actors Guild contract, regardless of budget level, shall receive fair compensation when reused.

This resolution represents guidance from the National Board of Directors to the National Negotiating Committee.  It reaffirms the importance of these issues in our current TV/Theatrical Negotiations.

The Board’s reaffirmation of these principles reinforces what we have been telling the industry for some time:  Screen Actors Guild members and leadership understand how important it is that new media productions under our contract be done union and that there be fair residuals for all programming run or re-run on new media.

This does not mean that new media is our only focus.  We know that you are also concerned about such bargaining priorities as product integration, force majeure, background actors’ issues and mileage.  We will be communicating with you in more depth on these and other bargaining priorities in the coming days.
As we continue to work toward a successful conclusion to these important TV/Theatrical contract negotiations, we remain committed to securing a fair contract that serves actors’ needs.

Thank you to the thousands of Screen Actors Guild members (more than 5,100) who have signed the Solidarity Statement in support of our National Negotiating Committee and to the thousands of you who have sent us your comments and suggestions.  We appreciate your dedication to your union and to your fellow actors.

For those who want to sign on and haven’t yet done so, you can send an email with your name and member ID number to contract2008@sag.org.  Feel free to include your comments and suggestions. Your input is welcome and valuable. You can also visit us at www.sag.org and click on the Solidarity Statement box to see the thousands of actors who have signed the statement.

As many of you know, this year marks our 75th Anniversary. It is a good time to remember our founders and to consider what Screen Actors Guild stands for:  We stand for actors — always. It is more important than ever that we stand together in support of our union, each other and for all of the actors to come.

Thank you once again for your solidarity and commitment.

In unity,

Alan Rosenberg

SAG UpDate #7

When it comes to what SAG considers its fair share in new media, the actors union is standing firm.

The union’s national board on Saturday passed, 68-0, a resolution indicating jurisdiction over new media and residuals for all made-for new media productions are of the utmost importance during the current stalled contract negotiations. The resolution was voted on during an 11-hour marathon meeting.
SAG and the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers have been locked in a de facto impasse ever since the production companies and studios made their final offer to the union on June 30.

SAG responded with a counter-proposal, which the AMPTP rejected. Since then, there has been one sidebar meeting between the two sides that failed to resolve the continued stalemate.
The resolution showed the first signs of solidarity among the fragmented national board since negotiations started in April. Board members from SAG’s Hollywood division, led by the faction MembershipFirst, have locked horns with board members in New York, Chicago, San Francisco and elsewhere regarding the current state of negotiations as well as its failed attempt to get members of both SAG and AFTRA to vote down AFTRA’s primetime/TV contract

With negotiations in limbo, Hollywood is at a virtual standstill. While TV productions continue, the major studios do not have many projects filming, in the event that SAG’s negotiating committee decides to take a strike vote and members vote to walk out.

SAG’s Internal Rift

An insurgent faction within the Screen Actors Guild has launched a campaign to wrest control of the powerful union from leaders they blame for stalemated contract talks with major Hollywood studios.

A bloc of SAG members calling itself Unite for Strength unveiled a slate of 31 candidates on Wednesday seeking to gain a majority on the national governing board in elections scheduled for Sept. 18.

The emergence of a serious challenge to SAG’s ruling coalition, a Hollywood-based group of moderates known as Membership First, likely means that the 3 1/2-week-old standoff between the union and studios will drag on for at least two more months.

Candidates running on the Unite for Strength slate include two stars from TV’s “Grey’s Anatomy” spinoff “Private Practice” — Kate Walsh and Amy Brenneman — as well as Doug Savant from “Desperate Housewives” and “Chicago Hope” veteran Adam Arkin.

They accuse the current leadership of mishandling labor talks and straining relations with SAG’s smaller sister union, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, through SAG’s failed campaign to scuttle a contract negotiated separately between AFTRA and the studios.

SAG UpDate #6

On July 19 about 700 actors from the Hollywood division of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) packed the Empire Room of the Sportsmen’s Lodge in Studio City. The meeting was called by the guild’s leadership in celebration of SAG’s 75th anniversary. The Hollywood branch has approximately 72,000 members, or about 60 percent of the national membership.

The meeting took place under tense and complex conditions. The current round of negotiations with writers, directors and performers in the entertainment industry, centered in Southern California, began a year ago. The writers, members of the Writers Guild, struck for more than three months last winter, and the leadership ended up reaching a rotten compromise, which failed to win increases on residuals from the sales of DVDs and included minimal gains for material on new media. The Directors Guild and American Federation of Radio and Television Artists (AFTRA) leaderships reached agreements along the same lines. Essentially, the entertainment conglomerates have gotten what they wanted, with minor exceptions.

The studios and networks are insisting that SAG sign the same sort of deal, but the guild leadership has held out to this point over the issue of new media in particular. In a statement sent out July 17, SAG national executive director Doug Allen insisted that the actors’ union must get a better deal than the writers and directors

SAG UpDate #5

The Screen Actors Guild on Thursday gave its most detailed explanation yet for its rejection of a final contract offer by Hollywood studios, citing shortfalls in pay and union jurisdiction on made-for-Internet productions.

In a letter to SAG’s 120,000 members, Doug Allen, the guild’s executive director, claimed the offer would allow nonunion actors into “almost all new media productions for the foreseeable future.”

It said the producers’ offer also would leave out residual fees paid to actors for content that is made specifically for, and then retransmitted on, the Web.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers responded with an equally detailed statement describing its Internet offer as “a major advancement” from the previous contract.

The producers have offered to mandate union coverage for Web shows that cost less than $15,000 per minute, but only if a union actor is hired. Those costing more would also be covered, regardless of who is hired.

They also offered residual payments for Internet-only shows that are rebroadcast on pay platforms like iTunes, theatrically or on television. Paid downloads of movies would trigger double the residual rate actors now receive from DVDs.

The producers have said a final offer they made June 30 was worth $250 million in additional compensation over three years, an estimate the guild disputes.

The offer mirrors those accepted by writers, directors and the smaller actors union, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

SAG UpDate #4

The Alliance of Motion Picture and TV Producers said today that the Screen Actors Guild has requested a Wednesday meeting.

While, according to the alliance, SAG didn’t divulge its express purpose for tomorrow’s powwow, we’re going to go out on a limb and assume it concerns the ongoing battle over the new three-year contract the union’s leaders have yet to sign off on.

The AMPTP, which has already indicated it’s not willing to stray from the supposedly generous terms currently on the table, said that it’s prepared to listen to whatever SAG’s leaders have to say “out of respect for the SAG membership.”

The two sides are scheduled to come together at 1 p.m. at AMPTP headquarters, their first sit-down since Thursday, when a five-hour meeting resulted in…nothing much.

“It is important to note that SAG has declined to specify the purpose of the meeting, and that AMPTP continues to call on SAG’s Hollywood leaders to accept AMPTP’s final offer,” which matches the terms arrived at with the Writers Guild and Directors Guild of America and the American Federation of Radio & TV Artists, the alliance stated Tuesday.

SAG’s West Coast reps have so far dismissed the major studios’ request to let the union’s 120,000 members review the new terms.

But if SAG’s national board, which is expected to meet by July 26, OKs the prospect, the actors could have a contract in place by Aug. 15—the deadline the AMPTP has given the thesps if they want to to cash in retroactively on the new deal’s proferred wage increases.

SAG UpDate #3

Amid the town’s growing consensus that the Screen Actors Guild is not going to strike, SAG is staying in stall mode. The guild offered no response to the congloms’ latest effort to dial up the pressure by warning that they may have to scale back their final offer if the economy worsens.

SAG has remained unswayed by such moves. Guild leaders haven’t moved toward a strike authorization amid signs they would probably not be able to achieve the required 75% support level to stage a walkout.

SAG’s leaders are expected to reiterate today their insistence that they still want to negotiate further on the majors’ final offer — even though the companies pulled the plug June 30 when SAG’s feature-primetime contract expired.

The stalemate’s likely to persist for several more weeks at least. The two sides can’t even agree on how to characterize the current situation.

The Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers has told SAG explicitly the final offer is a take-it-or-leave-it proposition that won’t be revised. SAG continues to insist that its refusal to accept the AMPTP deal does not amount to a rejection; furthermore, it contends that its presentation of counterproposals constitutes bargaining despite the AMPTP’s denials.

SAG UpDate #2

The major Hollywood studios have told the Screen Actors Guild that if the union does not accept its final contract offer by Aug. 15 any proposed wage increases would not be retroactive, a person with knowledge of unreleased details of the offer said Wednesday.The producers threw down that gauntlet in their final offer, which they said included $250 million in additional compensation over three years, said the person, who was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter and requested anonymity.

If the producers’ deadline passes before the union ratifies a contract, that means the actors could lose more than $200,000 a day in increases dating to July 1, the day the new contract would take effect.

The two sides appear headed toward an impasse in their contract talks. Producers have released only general descriptions on their offer.

But the producers’ chief negotiator, J. Nicholas Counter III, said in a letter to California’s state Legislature Wednesday that the alliance had presented its “last and best and final” offer to the guild.

The producers’ stance left open the possibility they could declare talks were at an impasse. If confirmed by the National Labor Relations Board, the declaration would allow them to impose certain clauses of their offer on the guild, said Witlin and Samnick, the two industry lawyers.