Some context: I was hired to be the Screen Actors Guild National Executive Director for the entire membership and all 3 divisions, not just Hollywood. Block voting was my idea, not that of the Hollywood Division board or Membership First. I presented it, prior to the recent plenary, to a number of the elected in all three divisions as one way to deal with an unfortunate stalemate in our relationship with AFTRA, a relationship I described in my last two Screen Actor letters as "challenging" and "troubled". I believe those words are particularly apt now because of recent events:
* AFTRA has for several years consciously and provocatively moved to organize one hour scripted drama in basic cable. Traditionally covered by SAG, this category has seen progressive penetration by AFTRA based on contracts that provide less for actors and more for producers than SAG contracts, most significantly by providing 10-15 free exhibition days for the first year, with no residual payments. The assertion that this was necessary to keep the work in the US is not supported by the facts. More than half of SAG basic cable pilots and series are produced in the US, and AFTRA shows, such as Rescue Me, Dirt and Damages, would clearly have been made in the US whether AFTRA or SAG.
*AFTRA has announced it is leaving the Associated Actors and Artistes of America (or 4A’s) the federation of actors unions (SAG, AFTRA, AEA, AGMA, AGVA) by which each union affiliates with the AFL-CIO. The 4A’s federation provides protections to actors that AFTRA appears interested in escaping. For example, no member of a 4A’s union can work a project struck by another 4A's union. Also, the 4A's obligates its members to resolve jurisdictional disputes under 4A’s procedures and in accordance with 4A’s jurisdictional boundaries.
*AFTRA reportedly has agreed prior to collective bargaining in '08, to allow simultaneous internet streaming of product shown on cable with no additional compensation for actors.
*AFTRA leadership has been unwilling to consider changes in Phase One to address the very real issues that divide us; issues such as jurisdiction, proportional representation in bargaining, and different application of rules regarding working non-union.
AFTRA is not acting in the spirit of cooperation and collaboration. Maybe the best evidence of that is AFTRA's absolute refusal to share basic cable contract information with the Screen Actors Guild. SAG has offered to provide every SAG-covered basic cable contract to AFTRA and has asked AFTRA to provide SAG with theirs, in an effort to discuss this issue based on facts, not conjecture. AFTRA has refused this request for almost a year. This refusal has come despite the fact that AFTRA adopted a convention resolution in 1999, also adopted by SAG and still in effect for both unions, which requires that: "... The unions make every effort to coordinate with each other to compare and understand the provisions existing in each others' major contracts that may benefit performers... and that the unions seek to bargain provisions that benefit performers and, in their totality, raise terms and conditions for work under those contracts... "
Given the state of our relationship as described above, I think it is appropriate for me to be concerned about how we will function together with AFTRA under Phase One during next year's negotiations. AFTRA and SAG cannot compete ruthlessly and cooperate successfully at the same time. One obvious problem is the 50/50 split of the joint committee vote and the joint board vote regarding network prime-time television, movies and commercials, where SAG members earn 85% of the compensation under SAG contracts. This means every AFTRA vote on these contracts is weighted six times more than every SAG vote, because the committee is not determined proportionally, as, for example, the joint WGA east and WGA west committee is, with 14 votes to west and 3 votes to east.
Some actors tell me they fervently believe in qualified voting, that only those with "skin in the game" should vote - for example, only those who have an agent should vote regarding the ATA, or only those who work a contract should vote on that contract. I find it puzzling that many of these same actors condemn recognition of SAG's overwhelming majority of the work under Phase One contracts, on the other hand, as "undermining democracy," "silencing the minority" or "denying the vote of all dues-paying members." I don't believe you can have it both ways. I believe that, within Screen Actors Guild, whether in a referendum or on the National Board, the minority on a particular issue should be heard and respected and the majority on that issue should decide, whoever it is and wherever it resides.
The Screen Actors Guild negotiating committee majority also should not be outvoted by a combination of the AFTRA members of the joint committee and one or more members of the SAG negotiating committee minority, with respect to those contracts where SAG covers 85 % of the work - - movies, primetime TV, and commercials, for example. Such a voting arrangement is not fair to Screen Actors Guild members. It is especially troubling when AFTRA is already eliminating residuals for the first year after a performance on a half-hour or hour show on basic cable and is reported to be allowing simultaneous internet streaming content with no compensation of any kind. These moves have hurt, not helped, actors and their timing is unfortunate, this close to '08 collective bargaining with the employers.
Finally, it is important to note that no one has voted to end Phase One. On the contrary, every effort is being made to preserve our Phase One relationship with AFTRA and, at the same time, deal with these very real problems. I encourage you to consider the facts before you judge the results of our ongoing efforts.
I very much appreciate your passionate interest in your Guild and your input.
Sincerely,
Doug Allen
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AFTRA National President Roberta Reardon Responds
Dear AFTRA Member:
At the AFTRA National Convention last month in Philadelphia, the AFTRA members who were elected as Delegates united to affirm your union's efforts to negotiate strong contracts, organize new work opportunities for professional performers and broadcasters, and keep jobs here in America for union performers. A report on that work is currently on the AFTRA website at www.aftra.com. and it is my intent to continue providing updates through the President's report on our website. Unfortunately, some long-simmering problems, which threaten to distract from this positive work erupted this weekend, require that I communicate with you as soon as possible. This letter, while long and detailed, reports on critical issues, and it is important that you read it carefully and in its entirety.
If you have been following trade press reports over the past couple weeks, you read that the National Board of our sister union, SAG, passed a motion to impose "bloc voting" in the Phase 1 negotiating process. AFTRA National Executive Director Kim Roberts Hedgpeth and I wrote to SAG National Executive Director Doug Allen and SAG National President Alan Rosenberg on July 30 to inquire whether those reports were accurate. If the descriptions of the motion by the press were accurate, this action would have the unfortunate effect of effectively terminating the Phase I Agreement under which our two unions have jointly negotiated the TV Commercials, Prime Time Dramatic Programming, and Non-Broadcast/Industrial Contracts during the past 26 years. To date, neither Kim nor I have received the courtesy of a reply (either formally or informally) from either Mr. Allen or President Rosenberg on this specific issue.
I understand that some SAG members (many of whom are also AFTRA members) sent emails to SAG NED Allen expressing concern about this reported motion that would end the Phase I joint negotiating agreement. Over this past weekend, numerous AFTRA members forwarded to me a copy of the response by Mr. Allen, dated August 17, to their email questions.
Mr. Allen did not merely reply to their inquiries, but went further to make allegations regarding AFTRA that are fabricated concoctions worthy of Karl Rove at his best. Despite the patience that AFTRA elected leaders have exhibited in recent months at inflammatory and false rhetoric directed at your union, I cannot let this most recent attempt by SAG staff to 'Swift Boat' AFTRA go by without response. This letter to you from me as your elected President seeks to set the record straight as there are many distortions, misrepresentations, and outright lies in the letter Mr. Allen has sent to a number of AFTRA members. Here are the facts you should know as an AFTRA member:
• The 91% affirmative vote of the duly-elected Delegates to the AFTRA Convention to affiliate directly with the AFL-CIO will help make AFTRA a stronger union, more responsive to the changing media industry. Mr. Allen is wrong in his comments about the Delegates' decision. To be clear, direct affiliation with the AFL-CIO does not change AFTRA members' constitutional obligations not to perform non-union work or struck work in the jurisdiction of a sister union—nor should the vote of the Delegates in any way change the obligations of our sister unions to act with corresponding respect toward AFTRA. Further, the vote of AFTRA's elected Convention Delegates does not change AFTRA's commitment to the Phase I Agreement, to continuing work with Actors' Equity and SAG on the problem of members of our respective organizations working "off the card" in sister unions' jurisdictions nor to any of the various issues that we have, and will continue to, work together on. Perhaps because Mr. Allen has not taken advantage of the invitations made to him to answer any questions he may have about the import of the AFTRA Delegates' vote, he honestly believes the erroneous statements made in his letter. It is my hope that—as the chief negotiator for my other union, SAG— he will do better research in the future before making such misstatements in print.
• AFTRA members remain firmly committed to the Phase I joint negotiating agreement with SAG. Mr. Allen claims that AFTRA leadership has been unwilling to consider changes in Phase I, which is patently untrue. The truth is that your AFTRA leadership has consistently expressed to SAG leadership our commitment to the Phase I Agreement entered into, and followed by, the two unions since 1981. Mr. Allen and, on occasion, President Rosenberg have attempted to get AFTRA to agree to a termination of Phase I through devices such as "proportional" voting. By contrast, AFTRA leadership has suggested, in order to address concerns articulated by Mr. Allen and President Rosenberg, that the unions should explore how to work within the framework of the Phase I Agreement by formalizing the concept that all members appointed to the joint negotiating committees, regardless of which union appoints them, be dual card holders and members who have worked the contract(s) in question. We further suggested to SAG leadership that the unions consider a structure that would ensure inclusiveness of category and geographic representation by both unions in a more thoughtful way than the ad-hoc manner in which AFTRA has had to appoint qualified members representing different categories and parts of the country to ensure inclusion of such groups that may have been excluded from the 50% of the committees appointed by SAG. Mr. Allen advised Kim and me that these suggestions made by AFTRA were "dismissed" by "their group" at SAG.
• For 70 years, AFTRA contracts have provided union standards for professional performers with fair wages, good benefits, and safe working conditions. Mr. Allen asserts that one-hour scripted dramatic programming on cable TV is the exclusive domain of SAG; he apparently operates on the theory that if one tells a lie often enough it will become the truth. The fact is that AFTRA, alongside our sister union SAG, has always organized and covered scripted drama in free, pay, and cable TV—and has done so for decades under the clear and well- accepted recognition between the two unions that both AFTRA and SAG share jurisdiction in this area. With one exception: AFTRA has always honored and stepped aside when a scripted entertainment program— no matter WHAT the length— is produced on film as within the exclusive purview of SAG. But with respect to videotape—and now digital—for free, pay, and cable television, both unions have, and continue to, cover dramatic programming wherever it is aired regardless of the length. Mr. Allen further suggests that AFTRA's organizing is based on providing less to actors. Again, patently false. AFTRA contracts in basic cable are, and have historically been in the more than quarter century that AFTRA has been organizing in this area, based on rates and conditions which AFTRA members—the vast majority of whom are dual cardholders, mind you—have negotiated and RATIFIED in free and pay television agreements. It is interesting that Mr. Allen, for example, pejoratively characterized the established model of exhibition windows as "free exhibition days." During the twenty-seven-year history of this model being used by SAG (and AFTRA) in pay TV, it is hard to recall any individual on SAG staff alleging that SAG is providing less to actors who work under that same structure in SAG-covered productions, such as "The Sopranos," "Entourage," "Big Love," and others.
• AFTRA members recognize that cable TV is a varied universe that requires contracts to be negotiated flexibly based on budgets and license fees. AFTRA and SAG have a different history in approaching basic cable TV productions. This is certainly not unusual, as other unions, such as WGA, DGA, IATSE, and Teamsters, have utilized different models in their negotiations to address the differences between lower budget and higher budget dramatic productions in cable. Look at the differences between approaches by AFTRA and SAG: Based on information prepared by SAG's own staff, almost one-half of the live action basic cable series produced under SAG contracts are produced outside of the U.S., meaning employment on those programs is available to the relatively few American actors that are sent to the foreign location to shoot; for most rank and file actors, that employment is not available. By contrast, of the live action basic cable series produced under AFTRA contracts, approximately 90% are produced in the U.S. giving union members the opportunity to audition and work in all categories of the production—principal and background—at fully negotiated union rates and conditions. AFTRA members are achieving our goal of keeping jobs here in America for union actors at union rates and conditions.
• AFTRA member leadership and staff remain willing to work with SAG members with trust and respect to protect and improve all contracts for professional performers. It is a complete fabrication when Mr. Allen says that AFTRA refused to share information about agreements AFTRA has negotiated for its member on basic cable. Because of the proprietary information underlying some individual contracts, we have offered to share the model agreements that AFTRA negotiates, with data to support a rational discussion about the present and future of basic cable. What Mr. Allen fails to say is that, since clearly and explicitly making our offer on June 28, Kim has twice asked Mr. Allen to discuss the method and logistics of exchanging this information. She has not heard from him to date.
There is more, much more, to be said about the inaccuracies in Mr. Allen's letter—and the inaccuracies and the attack campaign that has been launched on AFTRA members by certain SAG staff and some SAG elected leaders. But given the confusion and anger generated among the many members who contacted me directly over the weekend about Mr. Allen's letter, it was necessary to communicate with you as soon as possible and provide you with appropriate facts and context. There will be more to follow.
I urge you to focus on what is important: the need for all AFTRA members—performers, actors, announcers, singers, dancers, journalists, recording artists, and others—to concentrate on the important round of upcoming negotiations in not only television, but commercials, non- broadcast, sound recordings, network news, radio, and interactive media that affect members of all categories working in all parts of the country.
If you wish to know the truth, and to learn more about the work of your union and the challenges we must all be prepared to face in the months to come, I encourage you to contact your AFTRA Local President or Local Board members, the AFTRA National Board members from your region, and, of course, please feel free to contact me at president@aftra.corn. Become an active participant in making your union, AFTRA, stronger, in order for you to have a stronger voice with our employers.
You can also check out www.aftra.com. and view the special section that highlights your union's recent successful Convention. I encourage you to listen to the lull reports of your elected President and your National Executive Director as they were delivered, to learn more about our union's work and the mission that lies ahead for us all.
And I thank you for taking the time to read this message, to listen, learn, and provide your input, so that we can work together to serve the interests of all AFTRA members in this complex and challenging world.
In solidarity,
Roberta Reardon
National President AFTRA, AFL-CIO
