From AFTRA/SAG/AEA Member
Susan Boyd Joyce
With TV/Theatrical and Commercial negotiations looming ahead, there is a lot at stake for us all. Using language like “giving away the farm" and "defacto" this and that does terrible harm. A couple of points:
Fact:
Our proud tradition has been that ALL AFTRA negotiation committee members are also SAG members and stakeholders in the contracts. They also represent other categories (i.e. singers, dancers, stunt performers) in the room. SAG does not - indeed, SAG leaders assume AFTRA will provide access for these members, and have for years. This is part of the importance of joint bargaining. AFTRA's presence is a positive, not a negative. SAG and AFTRA approved Phase I in 1981. It was as much a move to keep SAG from poaching TV jurisdiction as the other way around. AFTRA got TV from negotiations with the Television Authority in 1953, not because SAG was feeling generous that year.
My take:
The major SAG contracts can be called "mature". I think they have become an unwieldy, overpriced, under-policed "one size" set of contracts. This is not the way to navigate the shark-infested waters of digital - and newer than digital - media. By the way, the newer SAG deals for low budget productions include rates for actors at $100/day. The talk about doing the same work for the same rate has never been realistic in the world of start-up productions and wildly varying budgets.
Fact:
The terms and conditions for AFTRA and SAG on Prime Time CBS, NBC, ABC and FOX are identical. Why? Because we bargained our respective contracts at the same time, with staff and members in the room together. Currently, there is talk among SAG leadership to institute "Proportionality in the Negotiating Team." This is a big phrase that means AFTRA would get a small number of its members in the room, and almost no say in the proceedings.
Question: Would SAG members agree to a risky and exclusive proposition like that?
Question: Whatever happened to a jointly bargained Basic Cable contract?
Fact:
In the early 80's cable was new on the radar screen - SAG leadership decided the time wasn't right to talk to the employers about it. A comedian named Betsy Salkind thought it was pretty big, though. She, AFTRA staff and members shepherded Comedy Central into being as a union network over a decade ago. SAG didn't want to organize the job. As a matter of fact, SAG leadership, at the turn of the century, instructed AFTRA that they were not to attempt an industry-wide organization of Basic Cable. “Or else.”
Question:
“Or else” what? Or else no more Phase One?
Fact:
Less than a year ago, SAG bargained - on its own - a Basic Cable agreement with some studios and networks. AFTRA wasn't invited or consulted, even though AFTRA has been at that table for over 20 years. SAG's leadership ignored Phase I in that process, and therefore there is now no jointly bargained, identical set of contracts in Basic Cable. That failure is at SAG's door.
Fact:
Some people keep talking about AFTRA "giving away" inferior rates. That is a lie on its face. For me - a scale performer - SAG has priced its rank and file out of the market almost entirely. A dim idea called commission on scale was a unilateral decision by SAG leaders that sent the excellent commercials contract into its first tailspin. AFTRA later had to approve the same measure to keep the playing fields across the country even. I remember the debate in the room - it was a bitter pill to swallow. Caps on background actors was another destructive move, and one that AFTRA members rejected. That little nod to the studios' cost controls has kept AFTRA staff struggling to hold that line and keep productions union, wall to wall. And amazingly enough, sometimes they do. AFTRA has organized cable shows that have actors working under identical rates, there's that word again - except the SAG cap on background doesn't apply.
My take: That would seem to me to be a superior contract.
Agents disenfranchised, branches closed, administrative waivers granted with no member input - the list goes on. I have been a SAG member for over 40 years. I belong to a guild that is now monolithic and inflexible - a roaring dinosaur touting outsized rates for outdated film structures, with 50% of its dramatic programming not only out of reach for rank and file actors, but out of the country entirely. Crews, caterers, local support businesses - out of work and SOL.
Current Noise:
The latest Screen Actor magazine slides by some interesting terrain. NED Doug Allen's letter to the members on page 10 says, "SAG members currently represented by ATA/NATR agents are faced daily with the language of General Services Agreements (GSA's) promulgated by the ATA (never negotiated with SAG)..." Makes it seem as though the GSAs sprang full grown from the heads of the agents. In reality they were a fallback position after SAG leadership reneged on its agreement with the ATA. Doug goes on, "There are also troubling and unresolved issues in our...relationship with AFTRA...: proportional representation in bargaining, and most problematic, jurisdictional conflict resulting in AFTRA's organizing of basic cable scripted shows..."
This is a thumbing of the nose at our agents, at a table that should be set for two unions with two contracts to bargain, and at the “T” that's been in AFTRA for 54 years. (Since both union and guild are sharing equally in the cost of the current Commercials Study, one wonders where and when the dividing line will actually be drawn between equality and proportionality.)
Breeze past the blurb on page 15 about the FCC public hearing on media ownership and you'll hear folks cite All in the Family, Good Times, and others as though they were SAG. Actually, they were all AFTRA before tape equipment got portable and SAG offered deals that excluded union 'extras' - a considerable savings even in those days. Scripted television has always been in AFTRA's jurisdiction.
Page 21 is a math quiz. Global Rule 1 Hits 5 Year MIlestone." But is it really working? $16 million in P&H contributions over 5 years and 1,805 jobs isn't a helluva lot, folks. And parsed out, my calculator says those 638 productions and 1805 jobs average out to a whopping 2.83 American SAG actors per job. That's one star and maybe 2 guest shots. Are the rest under an ACTRA or other contract? Rule 1, no contract/no work rules should be part of an educational, cooperative campaign to keep the work union and keep it in the country.
My take:
AFTRA members have said clearly that Phase I has worked and it should continue to work. That's how we get identical rates and conditions, that's how we protect our members. SAG leaders in their plenary have to say just as clearly: “What is best for SAG members is joint bargaining for contract parity.” In private people assert their support for it. Certainly minority categories need Phase I just to get a place in the bargaining room, let alone near the table. It is time for our sisters and brothers at SAG to get informed about what's really going on, and not simply buy into the lies and revisionist history. I hope for a successful and productive SAG plenary this weekend.
Reaffirm the past success and future hope of Phase I. Recommit to carrying it out in letter and spirit. Instruct senior staff to work cooperatively among all the guilds and unions. Rebuild our mutual respect.
I think there is a subtle difference between "unity" and "solidarity." Unity implies to me one point of view and no room for dissent.
Solidarity has always meant to me striving for consensus through education, working through conflicts, celebrating our differences, building bridges. That's the kind of union I want us to be.
In solidarity,
Susan Boyd Joyce
AFTRA, SAG, AEA
Fact:
Our proud tradition has been that ALL AFTRA negotiation committee members are also SAG members and stakeholders in the contracts. They also represent other categories (i.e. singers, dancers, stunt performers) in the room. SAG does not - indeed, SAG leaders assume AFTRA will provide access for these members, and have for years. This is part of the importance of joint bargaining. AFTRA's presence is a positive, not a negative. SAG and AFTRA approved Phase I in 1981. It was as much a move to keep SAG from poaching TV jurisdiction as the other way around. AFTRA got TV from negotiations with the Television Authority in 1953, not because SAG was feeling generous that year.
My take:
The major SAG contracts can be called "mature". I think they have become an unwieldy, overpriced, under-policed "one size" set of contracts. This is not the way to navigate the shark-infested waters of digital - and newer than digital - media. By the way, the newer SAG deals for low budget productions include rates for actors at $100/day. The talk about doing the same work for the same rate has never been realistic in the world of start-up productions and wildly varying budgets.
Fact:
The terms and conditions for AFTRA and SAG on Prime Time CBS, NBC, ABC and FOX are identical. Why? Because we bargained our respective contracts at the same time, with staff and members in the room together. Currently, there is talk among SAG leadership to institute "Proportionality in the Negotiating Team." This is a big phrase that means AFTRA would get a small number of its members in the room, and almost no say in the proceedings.
Question: Would SAG members agree to a risky and exclusive proposition like that?
Question: Whatever happened to a jointly bargained Basic Cable contract?
Fact:
In the early 80's cable was new on the radar screen - SAG leadership decided the time wasn't right to talk to the employers about it. A comedian named Betsy Salkind thought it was pretty big, though. She, AFTRA staff and members shepherded Comedy Central into being as a union network over a decade ago. SAG didn't want to organize the job. As a matter of fact, SAG leadership, at the turn of the century, instructed AFTRA that they were not to attempt an industry-wide organization of Basic Cable. “Or else.”
Question:
“Or else” what? Or else no more Phase One?
Fact:
Less than a year ago, SAG bargained - on its own - a Basic Cable agreement with some studios and networks. AFTRA wasn't invited or consulted, even though AFTRA has been at that table for over 20 years. SAG's leadership ignored Phase I in that process, and therefore there is now no jointly bargained, identical set of contracts in Basic Cable. That failure is at SAG's door.
Fact:
Some people keep talking about AFTRA "giving away" inferior rates. That is a lie on its face. For me - a scale performer - SAG has priced its rank and file out of the market almost entirely. A dim idea called commission on scale was a unilateral decision by SAG leaders that sent the excellent commercials contract into its first tailspin. AFTRA later had to approve the same measure to keep the playing fields across the country even. I remember the debate in the room - it was a bitter pill to swallow. Caps on background actors was another destructive move, and one that AFTRA members rejected. That little nod to the studios' cost controls has kept AFTRA staff struggling to hold that line and keep productions union, wall to wall. And amazingly enough, sometimes they do. AFTRA has organized cable shows that have actors working under identical rates, there's that word again - except the SAG cap on background doesn't apply.
My take: That would seem to me to be a superior contract.
Agents disenfranchised, branches closed, administrative waivers granted with no member input - the list goes on. I have been a SAG member for over 40 years. I belong to a guild that is now monolithic and inflexible - a roaring dinosaur touting outsized rates for outdated film structures, with 50% of its dramatic programming not only out of reach for rank and file actors, but out of the country entirely. Crews, caterers, local support businesses - out of work and SOL.
Current Noise:
The latest Screen Actor magazine slides by some interesting terrain. NED Doug Allen's letter to the members on page 10 says, "SAG members currently represented by ATA/NATR agents are faced daily with the language of General Services Agreements (GSA's) promulgated by the ATA (never negotiated with SAG)..." Makes it seem as though the GSAs sprang full grown from the heads of the agents. In reality they were a fallback position after SAG leadership reneged on its agreement with the ATA. Doug goes on, "There are also troubling and unresolved issues in our...relationship with AFTRA...: proportional representation in bargaining, and most problematic, jurisdictional conflict resulting in AFTRA's organizing of basic cable scripted shows..."
This is a thumbing of the nose at our agents, at a table that should be set for two unions with two contracts to bargain, and at the “T” that's been in AFTRA for 54 years. (Since both union and guild are sharing equally in the cost of the current Commercials Study, one wonders where and when the dividing line will actually be drawn between equality and proportionality.)
Breeze past the blurb on page 15 about the FCC public hearing on media ownership and you'll hear folks cite All in the Family, Good Times, and others as though they were SAG. Actually, they were all AFTRA before tape equipment got portable and SAG offered deals that excluded union 'extras' - a considerable savings even in those days. Scripted television has always been in AFTRA's jurisdiction.
Page 21 is a math quiz. Global Rule 1 Hits 5 Year MIlestone." But is it really working? $16 million in P&H contributions over 5 years and 1,805 jobs isn't a helluva lot, folks. And parsed out, my calculator says those 638 productions and 1805 jobs average out to a whopping 2.83 American SAG actors per job. That's one star and maybe 2 guest shots. Are the rest under an ACTRA or other contract? Rule 1, no contract/no work rules should be part of an educational, cooperative campaign to keep the work union and keep it in the country.
My take:
AFTRA members have said clearly that Phase I has worked and it should continue to work. That's how we get identical rates and conditions, that's how we protect our members. SAG leaders in their plenary have to say just as clearly: “What is best for SAG members is joint bargaining for contract parity.” In private people assert their support for it. Certainly minority categories need Phase I just to get a place in the bargaining room, let alone near the table. It is time for our sisters and brothers at SAG to get informed about what's really going on, and not simply buy into the lies and revisionist history. I hope for a successful and productive SAG plenary this weekend.
Reaffirm the past success and future hope of Phase I. Recommit to carrying it out in letter and spirit. Instruct senior staff to work cooperatively among all the guilds and unions. Rebuild our mutual respect.
I think there is a subtle difference between "unity" and "solidarity." Unity implies to me one point of view and no room for dissent.
Solidarity has always meant to me striving for consensus through education, working through conflicts, celebrating our differences, building bridges. That's the kind of union I want us to be.
In solidarity,
Susan Boyd Joyce
AFTRA, SAG, AEA
posted by FireBird @ 9:03 AM
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