SAG RATIFIES TV/THEATRICAL CONTRACT!

Screen Actors Guild Members Overwhelmingly Ratify TV/Theatrical Agreements

Los Angeles, (June 9, 2009) – Screen Actors Guild announced today that members have voted overwhelmingly to approve its TV/Theatrical contracts by a vote of 78 percent to 22 percent.

The two-year successor agreement covers film and digital television programs, motion pictures and new media productions. The pact becomes effective at 12:01 a.m. June 10, 2009 and expires June 30, 2011.

The contracts provide more than $105 million in wages, increased pension contributions, and other gains and establishes a template for SAG coverage of new media formats.

Approximately 110,000 SAG members received ballots of which 35.26 percent returned them – a return that is above average compared with typical referenda on Screen Actors Guild contracts. Integrity Voting Systems of Everett, WA, provided election services and tonight certified the final vote tally upon completion of the tabulation.

The vote count in the Hollywood Division was 70.70 percent to 29.30 percent in favor. In the New York Division, the vote count was 85.74 percent to 14.26 percent in favor. And in the Regional Branch Division, the vote count was 89.06 percent to 10.94 percent in favor.

Screen Actors Guild President Alan Rosenberg said, “The membership has spoken and has decided to work under the terms of this contract that many of us, who have been involved in these negotiations from the beginning, believe to be devastatingly unsatisfactory. Tomorrow morning I will be contacting the elected leadership of the other talent unions with the hope of beginning a series of pre-negotiation summit meetings in preparation for 2011. I call upon all SAG members to begin to ready themselves for the battle ahead,” Rosenberg added.

Screen Actors Guild Interim National Executive Director David White said, “This decisive vote gets our members back to work with immediate pay raises and puts SAG in a strong position for the future. Preparation for the next round of negotiations begins now. Our members can expect more positive changes in the coming months as we organize new work opportunities, repair and reinvigorate our relationships with our sister unions and industry partners, and continue to improve the Guild’s operations.”

Screen Actors Guild Chief Negotiator John McGuire said, “I want to thank the SAG members and staff who dedicated their time to the negotiations process. We emerged with a solid deal that the members have now voted up. The negotiating team worked tirelessly, building on the work of the first negotiating committee, to deliver these improvements to members.”

Screen Actors Guild began talks with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers on April 15, 2008. Guild Chief Negotiator John McGuire, Interim National Executive Director David White, and Deputy National Executive Director for Contracts Ray Rodriguez, working with a 10-person negotiating task force comprised of Screen Actors Guild board members and officers representing the three divisions, reached the tentative agreement on April 16, 2009 after 12 months of periodic negotiations with the motion picture studios and television networks.

For further information on the new contract, including the full text and a summary of the agreement, click here.

ACTORS RESPOND TO CONTRACT RATIFICATION

Tony Shalhoub, actor
“This is a great decision for SAG and I’m so appreciative of everything the new leadership is doing to put the Guild back on track. They’ve obviously got the right ideas for making SAG stronger.”

Stephen Collins, actor
“This contract passed because members knew it was time to take advantage of the gains our negotiators won and get back to work. On top of that, they understood that risking our ability to negotiate alongside AFTRA and the other unions in the 2011 negotiations would have been a huge mistake. It’s a great day for SAG.”

Sam Freed, actor, 2nd National Vice President
“This decision by the membership marks the end of a very long process. We can now move forward with a new sense of certainty.”

Sue-Anne Morrow, actor, National Board Member representing New York
“This is a good deal with good gains. SAG’s members clearly agree. It’s about time we got a raise. I’m so pleased that SAG’s members exercised their right to be heard and said ‘Yes!’.”

Mike Hodge, actor, National Board Member representing New York
“I am extremely pleased that we have finally come to the close of a long, unproductive period. I am hopeful that we can heal our wounds and really start the work to become a unified, national union.”

Nancy Duerr, actor, National Board Member representing SAG Florida Branch
“This is a victory for SAG performers across our region. Stalled and delayed productions can now get underway, boosting our local economies. This contract not only puts more money in members’ pockets, it preserves the high standards of working conditions our members have come to expect.”

Todd Hissong, actor, Chicago Branch President, National Board Member
“By passing this referendum, Chicago members have sent a clear message that we want to get back to work. Screen Actors Guild members across the country have yet again demonstrated our grasp of the issues, the importance of unionism, and our need to stand together with our sister unions to make deals that benefit us all.”

David Hartley-Margolin, Colorado actor, SAG 3rd Vice President
“The membership always has the last word when it comes to contract matters. They have spoken. Their endorsement of the deal with the AMPTP ends the uncertainty that has been hovering over us and allows Screen Actors Guild and the industry to move forward together.”

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About SAG
Screen Actors Guild is the nation’s largest labor union representing working actors. Established in 1933, SAG has a rich history in the American labor movement, from standing up to studios to break long-term engagement contracts in the 1940s to fighting for artists’ rights amid the digital revolution sweeping the entertainment industry in the 21st century. With 20 branches nationwide, SAG represents nearly 120,000 actors who work in film and digital television programs, motion pictures, commercials, video games, music videos, industrials and all new media formats. The Guild exists to enhance actors’ working conditions, compensation and benefits and to be a powerful, unified voice on behalf of artists’ rights. SAG is a proud affiliate of the AFL-CIO. Headquartered in Los Angeles, you can visit SAG online at www.sag.org.

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SAG MEMBERS: GET YOUR BALLOTS IN BY JUNE 9TH!

SAG: DON’T BE TRICKED INTO VOTING NO

I voted YES on the TV/Theatrical ballot. Below is an important message from The Screen Actors Guild. (Hope everyone is having a great Memorial Day weekend, and that all SAG members reading this blog VOTE YES!)

-Mark Redfield

 

Don’t be Tricked into Voting Against the TV/Theatrical Contract

Some members are trying to take our union down and continue to circulate misinformation about our tentative agreement. Don’t be fooled into voting down a good deal, with real gains for actors. The opponents would like you to believe they have a “plan” if this agreement is voted down. They’ve never actually said what that plan is, and for the last year, their plan failed miserably. You lost jobs, wages and maybe even your health coverage.

 · After a year of negotiations and 11 months of working without a contract, we finally have a good deal.

 · After losing wage increases of $85 million over the last year, actors and their families need this deal now.

 · We need the pay raises, added residuals, better benefits, and protections for the future offered by this contract. WE have a plan – to approve this contract, get our raises, rebuild our union, and restore union pride.

Just ask yourself if it’s smart to say no to a deal with real, solid financial gains for SAG actors. After a year working without a contract… is that really smart? A YES vote is the smart vote.

So, when you see negative attacks launched by the opponents of this deal, ask them: What’s the alternative? They won’t give an answer, because they don’t have one.

Click www.sag.org/sag-tv to see what working SAG actors think on SAG TV: “What’s the Alternative?” Vote YES today and mail your ballot. Go to www.sag.org for the facts.

SAG’s National Board majority knows what the alternative to a YES vote means. And they want you to know, too. For more detailed information regarding the TV/Theatrical tentative agreements, visit the Contract Center on the SAG website at www.sag.org or email your questions or comments to Contract2009@sag.org.

SAG: COMMERCIALS CONTRACT APPROVED

One down…

Now if we can get the TV/Theatrical contract approved.

From The Screen Actor’s Guild:

Los Angeles (May 21, 2009) —

In nationwide voting completed today, members of the Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists have overwhelmingly approved new three-year successor agreements to the 2006 Screen Actors Guild Television Commercials Contract and the2006 AFTRA Television and Radio Commercials Contracts .

The memberships of AFTRA and SAG voted 93.84% percent in favor of the new agreements. Approximately 132,000 members of the unions received ballots, of which 28% percent returned them. The final vote was certified today by Integrity Voting Systems, an impartial election service based in Everett, Washington.

The new agreements cover performers working in commercials made for and reused on television, radio, the Internet, and new media. The unions estimate that the three-year increase, which is retroactively effective to April 1, will generate more than $108 million in member earnings, including approximately $24 million in increased contributions to the SAG Pension & Health and AFTRA Health & Retirement plans. The total combined value of the AFTRA and SAG contracts is projected at more than $3 billion over the three-year term of the agreement for working performers, including actors, singers, dancers, choreographers, stunt persons, and extras.

The unions also successfully established a first-ever payment structure in commercials for the Internet and new media. The unions affirmed their jurisdiction over commercial work made for the Internet in 2000, and new media formats in 2006. The new payment structure goes into effect in the third year of the contract. Additionally, the new contracts contain an agreement outlining terms for a pilot study to test the Gross Rating Points (GRP) model of restructuring compensation to principle performers, as proposed by Booz & Co. The two-year pilot study will be conducted by a jointly retained consultant engaged by the unions and the industry. The study is expected to be paid for by grants from Screen Actors Guild-Industry Advancement and Cooperative Fund (IACF) and the AFTRA-Industry Cooperative Fund (AICF).

 Praising the successful ratification, AFTRA National President Roberta Reardon observed, “I am pleased that our members have ratified these new television and radio commercials contracts. These new agreements provide significant increases in payments to working performers now—a major achievement in a severely depressed global economy—and the contracts will guarantee our continued participation in this important area of work as it evolves in response to consumer tastes and trends affected by the changing landscape of digital technology.” “We have enormous power when we negotiate jointly and it put us in a great position from day one,” added Sue-Anne Morrow, Screen Actors Guild’s national chair of the SAG-AFTRA Joint Commercials Negotiating Committee. “Achieving a minimum for ads made for the Internet and new media was a huge win. It was time to insist that actors be paid fairly for their exposure in these developing areas and members clearly approved through their overwhelming votes to ratify.”

The pact with the Association of National Advertisers and the American Association of Advertising Agencies goes into effect retroactively to April 1, 2009, and will remain in force until March 31, 2012. SAG and AFTRA members voted on the tentative agreement that had been reached with the advertising industry on March 31 and overwhelmingly recommended by the SAG-AFTRA Joint Board in a meeting on April 18. Ballots were mailed April 30 to all eligible members in good standing of either union.

About SAG Screen Actors Guild is the nation’s largest labor union representing working actors. Established in 1933, SAG has a rich history in the American labor movement, from standing up to studios to break long-term engagement contracts in the 1940s to fighting for artists’ rights amid the digital revolution sweeping the entertainment industry in the 21st century. With 20 branches nationwide, SAG represents nearly 120,000 actors who work in film, television, industrials, commercials, video games, music videos and other new media. The Guild exists to enhance actors’ working conditions, compensation and benefits and to be a powerful, unified voice on behalf of artists’ rights. SAG is a proud affiliate of the AFL-CIO. Headquartered in Los Angeles, you can visit SAG online at www.sag.org.

About AFTRA The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, AFL-CIO, are the people who entertain and inform America. In 32 Locals across the country, AFTRA members work as actors, journalists, singers, dancers, announcers, hosts, comedians, disc jockeys, and other performers across the media industries including television, radio, cable, sound recordings, music videos, commercials, audio books, non-broadcast industrials, interactive games, the Internet, and other digital media. The 70,000 professional performers, broadcasters, and recording artists of AFTRA are working together to protect and improve their jobs, lives, and communities in the 21st century. From new art forms to new technology, AFTRA members embrace change in their work and craft to enhance American culture and society. Visit AFTRA online at www.aftra.com.

VOTE “YES” FOR SAG TV/THEATRICAL CONTRACT BALLOT!

Dear fellow Screen Actors Guild members,

After more than a year of negotiations, ballots for the tentative agreement reached between SAG and the AMPTP for television programs, motion pictures and new media formats will be mailed today on Tuesday, May 19.

The SAG National Board of Directors and negotiating team are recommending that you VOTE YES on this tentative agreement.

During the worst economic crash since the Great Depression, this contract gets SAG members back to work immediately with more money and better benefits. Without a contract, actors lost thousands of jobs, tens of millions of dollars, and producers shifted 90% of TV pilots to AFTRA.

This contract provides significant and immediate gains – more than $100 million over two years. All members will get a raise, we will get first-ever residuals for product streamed on the Internet and SAG achieves historic jurisdiction in new media. Stunt coordinators will get first-ever residuals participation in television and the contract increases background numbers throughout the industry.

Vote Yes for Breakthroughs in New Media
This contract recognizes historic jurisdiction for SAG in new media and for the first time we’ll be paid when film or TV work is streamed online at sites like Hulu.com. For downloads we’ll receive residuals at nearly twice the rate of DVDs. Most important, this contract requires employers to show us the money in new media, so that we can negotiate new terms armed with facts and real-world data.

Vote Yes for Increasing Benefits
Even as other unions around the world are being pressured to trim or eliminate benefits, this contract protects all existing benefits and increases the pension contribution rate, bringing it to the highest level in the industry.
Vote Yes for the Future of SAG
SAG will regain the ability to negotiate at the same time as other industry unions, significantly increasing our strength in the next negotiation. That will give us better bargaining power and more leverage during stronger economic times.

Vote No to A Strike
If this contract does not pass: We’ll lose money. We’ll lose work. We’ll lose the gains of this contract. We’ll weaken SAG in future negotiations. We’ll have to consider striking during the worst economic collapse since the Great Depression, at a time when other national unions have been forced to give up pay and benefits. This is the right contract at the right time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysKSo2wvLW8

Visit www.sag.org for more information on the TV/Theatrical contract referendum, including highlights and a summary of the deal along with a full copy of the tentative agreement. Read the materials and when you get your ballot, vote yes on the TV/Theatrical agreement. Email questions to Contract2009@sag.org.

I’ll be voting “YES” and I’m encouraging all fellow SAG colleagues to do the same!

-Mark Redfield

NEW CAROLINE MUNRO INTERVIEW IN ‘LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS’ MAGAZINE!

Richard Klemenson’s fabulous magazine about all things Hammer Films came out on March 23rd, 2009, with a special issue devoted to DRACULA TODAY! HAMMER’S VAMPIRE IN 1970s LONDON .

Articles include: “Mean, Moody & Murderous: In Search of Hammer NOIR- Part 1″ by Denis Meikle, “Cartoon introduction to how Van Helsing and Dracula ended up on the coach at the beginning of DRACULA A.D. 1972″ Written by Philip Nutman and illustrated by Mark Maddox.

Historic introductions (with comments by Hammer’s late managing director Michael Carreras) to that period of 1971-72 at Hammer, written by Denis Meikle. “The Making of DRACULA A.D. 1972 & THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA” by Bruce G. Hallenbeck.  New interviews with Caroline Munro by Mark Redfield, Christopher Neame by Ted Newsom and Don Mingaye by Wayne Kinsey

“STONEGROUND UNEARTHED!” History of the AD72 Rock group with interviews with two of the lead singers Tim Barnes and Annie Sampson by Bruce G. Hallenbeck. Interviews with William Franklyn by Jonathan Sothcott, Valerie Van Ost by Jonathan Sothcott.

“ALAN GIBSON.” An affectionate look at the late director, with the cooperation of his two daughters – Jessica and Sarah – and his brother, noted Canadian Author Graeme Gibson, written by Richard Klemensen, and “DRACULA SWINGS” The music of Hammer’s Mike Vickers & John Cacavas by David Huckvale.

Interior Artwork by Murad Gumen, Neil Vokes, Shane Ivan Oakley, Dan Gallagher, Mike Schneider, Adrian Salmon, Shana Bilbrey & Bruce Timm.

You can now order LITTLE SHOPPE OF HORRORS #22 and #23 on line from www.littleshoppeofhorrors.com . $9.95 PPD.

-Mark Redfield

A US STAMP COMMEMORATING ACTORS EQUITY

Support Actors Equity (AEA)’s drive for a 100th Anniversary commemorative stamp.

Sign the petition and support AEA. Visit www.actorsequity.org. You don’t have to be an AEA member to sign. It’s open to everyone who loves the theatre.

On May 26, 2013, AEA will celebrate the 100th Anniversary of its founding. Many events are being planned to celebrate a century of professional theatre in America and AEA’s unique contribution to our country’s culture and society. AEA  is applying to the Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee and the Postmaster General of the Unites States to be honored with a commemorative stamp. The process is highly competitive and has to begin years in advance. AEA is doing everything it can to be selected, reaching out to elected officials and organizing an AEA Centennial Stamp Committee under Kate Burton and Dana Ivey’s leadership to engage celebrities in the effort. They also need to show popular support. What can you do? Sign the petition It’s simple and your privacy is protected. Please visit www.actorsequity.org today and sign!

MEMBERSHIP FIRST SET TO DESTROY AFTRA FROM WITHIN

14 May, 2009

AFTRA MEMBERS–DO NOT VOTE FOR THE FOLLOWING “MEMBERSHIP FIRST” ENDORSED CANDIDATES!

FOR AFTRA NATIONAL BOARD
Granville Ames
Steven Barr
David Clennon
Anne-Marie Johnson
Carole Elliot
David Jolliffe
Alan Ruck

For AFTRA LOCAL (LOS ANGELES) BOARD
David Joliffe
Paul Napier

FOR THE AFTRA CONVENTION IN CHICAGO THIS SUMMER
Ian Abercrombie
Granville Ames
Robert Amico
Jeff Austin
Steven Barr
Bonnie Bartlett
Rico Bueno
David Clennon
George Coe
John Cygan
Frances Fisher
Sumi Haru
David Hillberg
Basil Hoffman
Anne-Marie Johnson
David Jolliffe
Kent McCord
Kevin McCorkle
Paul Napier
Scott Pierce

Their stance against AFTRA is a matter of record. Their intention is to infiltrate AFTRA and dismantle it from within. As your ballots arrive, I urge you to look at them carefully and DO NOT VOTE any of them in.

Please forward this list to colleagues who are voting. Most of these same Membership Firsters, on SAG’s Hollywood Board, have created a “task force” to raid AFTRA of actors. Membership First–the same destructive group who have been incapable of negotiating any SAG contracts, who have repeatedly attacked AFTRA, who are campaigning against the upcoming SAG Theatrical/TV contract and who want a strike to shut down the industry. PLEASE KEEP THIS LIST HANDY WHEN YOU VOTE–AND SAY NO TO MEMBERSHIP FIRST!

-Mark Redfield

From Jonathan Handel, Digital Media Law

SAG’s Hollywood branch, dominated by the hardline Membership First faction, has passed a motion forming a task force to explore “acquisition of actors of AFTRA,” reports SAGWatch. The purpose of the awkwardly-phrased motion is evidently to eliminate AFTRA’s jurisdiction over television acting (long a stated goal of MF), leaving it with only broadcasters (newscasters, weather reporters, etc.), singers and others, but not actors. To the same end, various MF-ers, including some who supported the motion, are running in the now-in-progress AFTRA board elections, the better to dismantle AFTRA from within.

All in all, it’s yet another anti-AFTRA campaign, courtesy of the faction whose record of accomplishment includes no ratified contracts, continued opposition to the approved deal on the table, a ten month stalemate, a national board meeting featuring a 28-hour filibuster, a lawsuit against their own union (which continues to this day despite rejection at both the trial and appellate levels), a gaping budget deficit, a loss of almost all pilots and new series to AFTRA, contract rates that are lower than AFTRA’s and will continue to be so for at least the next two years, a loss of tens of millions of dollars in wages to date (due to lower rates in effect during the stalemate), a virtual halt to studio theatrical production for the duration of the stalemate, denigration of the union’s own membership as “frightened little children” and of the union’s own lawyers as “liars,” continued factionalism and infighting, disparagement of AFTRA as a “scumbag union,” and the fostering of enmity from members of other unions (particularly IATSE, obviously AFTRA, and, no doubt, the DGA) throughout the industry. Quite a platform for the upcoming SAG elections.

SAG vs. AMPTP: Tentative Deal Reached

From Variety:

April 17, 2009

SAG, AMPTP reach tentative deal
Guild’s national board to review this Sunday
By VARIETY STAFF, VARIETY STAFF

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118002545.html?categoryid=1066&cs=1

SAG and the congloms have reached a tentative agreement on the feature-primetime contract — nearly 10 months after the previous deal expired. Both the Screen Actors Guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers made the announcement early Friday afternoon.

SAG’s national board is expected to approve the terms of the pact at its meeting this weekened — triggering the mailing of ratification ballots to its 120,000 members.

The deal comes following two months of back-channels talks between SAG toppers and moguls such as Disney’s Robert Iger and News Corp.’s Peter Chernin. The last key points to be settled centered on SAG insisting on an expiration date in June 2011 in order to stay in synch with the
WGA, DGA and AFTRA expirations.

The back-channel talks also focused on settling claims for force majeure payments to actors from TV series that went dark during the writers strike.

Deal comes three months after the moderate majority on SAG’s board ousted Doug Allen as SAG national exec director for allegedly botching the negotiations. Allen was replaced by David White as interim national exec director and by John McGuire as chief negotiator.

The hardline Memebership First faction, which lost its board majority last fall, has vowed it will urge members to vote down the deal — on grounds that it falls short in on on multitude of areas, particularly new media.

The AMPTP has contended that its offer — first made last summer — is in line with those deals accepted by the other guilds last year and remains generous amid the declining economy.

ROBERT QUARRY 1925-2009

My friend Bob Quarry passed away on Friday, February 20, 2009.

A fine actor. An incredible and delightful storyteller. A passionate and, by turns, curmodgeonly fellow, when he wanted to be. A good friend. I’m really sad about his passing, but glad that he isn’t in pain anymore. Last year he moved into the Motion Picture Home and Hospital.The last several months were tough. I’m angry that I couldn’t give him some of the things that he wanted–that he wanted to accomplish in these last couple of years. His health constantly thwarted him. He had a burning desire to create, to act.

I wish I could have given him more.

-Mark Redfield