From SAG Chicago Member

Regan Rohde...

December 29, 2005

Alan Rosenberg
Screen Actors Guild
5757 Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles, California, 90036

Dear Alan Rosenberg,

Is SAG to be referred to in the future as Membership First, or are we to remain the Screen Actors Guild?

Having just read your comments in our national magazine I’m quite confused as to where your priorities lie. I’m furious that you are patting yourself on the back and saying you are going to unify this union. Touring the country and quoting Lincoln does not make you a unifier. We not only see runaway production across the country thanks to strike 2000 but we see a man with runaway power. The Screen Actors Guild is a union of consensus not of one special interest group.

Firing Greg Hessinger was a mistake. Firing his new capable hires was a mistake and potentially costly to our treasury. In violating Mr. Hessinger’s contract how can we hope to have our SAG contracts honored? You have a board filled with “Membership First” and I don’t think they represent the majority of our membership. You have been given a very special job and you are abusing your power to shove an ill-conceived strike down our member’s throats. Yet for all of your honesty you never mention that to our family of 120,000 members. It’s good to quote Abraham Lincoln, but you fail to recognize that he kept the counsel of both supporters and dissenters during the Civil War .He knew he needed checks and balances so he could make sound decisions. Where are your checks and balances?

Our industry is going through some big changes that are affecting the entire advertising world. I think I speak for a good portion of commercial actors who have been making a living at this for almost 30 years. We want to help facilitate our client’s needs. The advertisers are not our enemy-they are our clients. They need to sell products and we want to continue to help them do that. Not in Europe, not in Canada, but right here in the USA! The 2000 strike was a disaster and I sincerely hope that you will not send our people down that road again because Mr. President we won’t have a union business to come back to.

Please listen to the voices outside of Hollywood to have a better understanding of what your union is saying to you. We want to stay unified and we want to continue to work. Please be the leader to preserve a 72 year history of SAG and not break it apart.

Yours Very Thoughtfully,
Regan Rohde
Chicago, Illinois
(Land of Lincoln)