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06-05-2008, 01:33 PM
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| JLH Nut   |  A SAG Strike Update Thank-you to Jim for this.... Person with SAG says union signs more waiver deals By RYAN NAKASHIMA (AP Business Writer) From Associated Press June 04, 2008 8:21 PM EDT LOS ANGELES - A person with the Screen Actors Guild said Wednesday the union has signed contracts to allow actors to work on more than 300 independently produced films in the event of an actors strike, adding pressure to the major studios to reach a deal. The person, who was not authorized to speak publicly and requested anonymity, said the wide range of films contained a slew of A-list talent, including Mel Gibson in "Edge of Darkness," Nicolas Cage in "Bad Lieutenant," and Oliver Stone's "W." The disclosure may put fire to the feet of big studios such as Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. by demonstrating that the Hollywood movie machine can roll on without them even if an actors strike occurs after June 30, when the current contract expires. "They can put pressure on the major studios by allowing smaller companies to produce films," said Scott Witlin, an entertainment lawyer who has represented television networks in the past. "Whether or not it'll have an impact is not entirely clear." The guild and the major studios, represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, continued Wednesday with contract talks covering films and prime-time TV shows. Negotiations began April 15. The producers alliance declined to comment. A smaller actors union, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, reached a tentative deal with the studios on a handful of prime-time TV shows last week. The agreement will last through June 2011 if it is approved by AFTRA's board at a meeting June 6-7 and then ratified by members. SAG's completion guarantees were offered only to independent movie producers with no current financing nor distribution deals with the major Hollywood studios. The guarantees also required the independents to retroactively abide by whatever deal is eventually reached. About 95 had been signed by mid-April. Aaron Ryder, a producer whose Raygun Productions received a completion guarantee on "My One and Only," starring Renee Zellweger, said the contracts could allow independents to work with talent they never had access to before. "If there is a strike, there will be a lot of actors who will only be allowed to work in this arena," Ryder said. Shooting on the Raygun film was to begin Monday in Baltimore and continue through August, he said. Ryder said many independent productions, including his own, will later attempt to sell the films to major studios, who they rely on for wide distribution. Such relationships potentially dilute any economic pressure the guild can put on the majors concerning its demands for higher fees for DVD appearances and a greater say in product endorsements in scripted scenes. Norman Samnick, a lawyer who has represented the studios in previous talks with actors, said the completion guarantees had precedent in previous contract disputes. "Arthur," a movie starring Dudley Moore as a happy, rich alcoholic, was given a guild guarantee to finish shooting during the three-month actors strike in 1980, he said. Orion Pictures Corp. completed the film over the objections of Warner Bros., but the studio went on to distribute the film anyway after a deal with actors was reached. Orion's decision riled the Hollywood studios by breaking ranks, but it did not cause the producers to cave in during negotiations, Samnick said. "Is this going to make a difference to the majors? The answer is 'No.'" Samnick said. "It may make them beg a little. They're not going to break." |
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06-06-2008, 01:14 PM
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| JLH Nut | Thanks again to Jim for this.... SAG chief risks striking sour note Balancing negotiation tactics with membership wishes By Leslie Simmons -The Hollywood Reporter June 5, 2008, 11:40 PM SAG president Alan Rosenberg faces a fight on two fronts. Confronted with opposition from studio reps at the bargaining table over key contract demands, Rosenberg and SAG chief negotiator Doug Allen are aiming to regain negotiating leverage by going against sister union AFTRA's recent deal with the majors. The problem: There is significant opposition to that strategy from within his own ranks. "To ask me to vote down one of my union's contracts is about as absurd a proposal I can possibly imagine," said Paul Christie, SAG national board member and former second national vp. "I think it's probably unprecedented in American labor history. Nobody is going to walk off a cliff for them." AFTRA struck a deal on its primetime TV deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers on May 28. It was the first time the performers union negotiated the contract without SAG in 27 years. The decision to bargain separately increased the animosity between SAG and AFTRA that had been brewing for the past year. Rosenberg and Allen are set to meet in person and via video conference with members of its national board Friday to discuss the negotiations. At the top of the agenda is whether to push the 44,000 members of SAG who are also members of AFTRA to vote down the recent deal. Additionally, the SAG board is expected to discuss strike authorization and try to determine whether members would vote in favor of a walkout. Meantime, a Santa Monica-based economic think tank report released Thursday indicates another industry strike would be devastating to California's economy alone. The report, "The Writers Strike of 2007-2008: The Economic Impact of Digital Distribution," suggests that the recent three-month scribe strike tipped California into a recession. And while the strike lasted 100 days, its effect will be felt through the end of 2008, with a projected loss of 37,700 jobs and $2.1 billion in lost output by the end of the year. Personal income is projected to decline by $3.1 billion, while wages and salaries are expected to hit a $2.3 billion loss as a result. The state could recover in 2009, but if another strike were to be called, it wouldn't be until 2010 before the industry and state would see a recovery, the report says. "If the industry were to shut down yet again due to a SAG strike, it would deal a serious blow to California's prospects for economic recovery," the report concludes. Hollywood has been bracing for another union walkout, with studios essentially throwing themselves into de facto strike mode for the summer, penciling in few, if any, projects on their calendars. But SAG has yet to ask its membership for a strike vote, though that could change Friday. Veteran Los Angeles labor attorney Howard Fabrick, a former chief negotiator for the AMPTP, said a strike threat would not give SAG much leverage in the talks. Rather, it would create animosity and cause added tension in the negotiations. "The attitude across the table in dealing with a union that has sought strike authority tends to harden, as opposed to a union that is bargaining in good faith and trying to make a deal," Fabrick said. "The employer may find the strike authorization the equivalent of an ultimatum. That undercuts the effort. "If they failed to get a strike vote, it would put them between a rock and a hard place," he added. Allen and Rosenberg may have already muddied the waters with the AMPTP when they met Monday with execs at Sony Pictures, Fabrick said. Such actions are often considered an attempt to undercut the authority of the collective bargaining representative, he noted. "I would be rather upset if someone went around me and went to members of my committee or the groups I represented and tried to sabotage my role as a negotiator," Fabrick said. "I think (the AMPTP's Nick Counter) would react the same way I have." While members of the WGA negotiating committee met with studio heads during the strike, those meetings had the blessings of Counter because of the breakdown between the Writers Guild negotiators and the AMPTP. "Frankly, the AMPTP bargaining committee was going nowhere and the Writers Guild couldn't bargain with them," Fabrick said. "The AMPTP elected essentially surrogates to deal with it." SAG board member Christie said SAG's leaders would have to present "a real good case" to convince members to vote for a strike. And right now, he doesn't believe there is enough there to justify a strike vote. He also suggested that any bid to undercut AFTRA's pact by blocking ratification would further lessen SAG's chance that the membership would authorize a strike. SAG and the AMPTP said after their meeting Thursday that talks will continue Monday. SAG chief risks striking sour note Balancing negotiation tactics with membership wishes By Leslie Simmons June 5, 2008, 11:40 PM Related Content Complete coverage: SAG/AFTRA SAG president Alan Rosenberg faces a fight on two fronts. Confronted with opposition from studio reps at the bargaining table over key contract demands, Rosenberg and SAG chief negotiator Doug Allen are aiming to regain negotiating leverage by going against sister union AFTRA's recent deal with the majors. The problem: There is significant opposition to that strategy from within his own ranks. "To ask me to vote down one of my union's contracts is about as absurd a proposal I can possibly imagine," said Paul Christie, SAG national board member and former second national vp. "I think it's probably unprecedented in American labor history. Nobody is going to walk off a cliff for them." AFTRA struck a deal on its primetime TV deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers on May 28. It was the first time the performers union negotiated the contract without SAG in 27 years. The decision to bargain separately increased the animosity between SAG and AFTRA that had been brewing for the past year. Rosenberg and Allen are set to meet in person and via video conference with members of its national board Friday to discuss the negotiations. At the top of the agenda is whether to push the 44,000 members of SAG who are also members of AFTRA to vote down the recent deal. Additionally, the SAG board is expected to discuss strike authorization and try to determine whether members would vote in favor of a walkout. Meantime, a Santa Monica-based economic think tank report released Thursday indicates another industry strike would be devastating to California's economy alone. The report, "The Writers Strike of 2007-2008: The Economic Impact of Digital Distribution," suggests that the recent three-month scribe strike tipped California into a recession. And while the strike lasted 100 days, its effect will be felt through the end of 2008, with a projected loss of 37,700 jobs and $2.1 billion in lost output by the end of the year. Personal income is projected to decline by $3.1 billion, while wages and salaries are expected to hit a $2.3 billion loss as a result. The state could recover in 2009, but if another strike were to be called, it wouldn't be until 2010 before the industry and state would see a recovery, the report says. "If the industry were to shut down yet again due to a SAG strike, it would deal a serious blow to California's prospects for economic recovery," the report concludes. Hollywood has been bracing for another union walkout, with studios essentially throwing themselves into de facto strike mode for the summer, penciling in few, if any, projects on their calendars. But SAG has yet to ask its membership for a strike vote, though that could change Friday. Veteran Los Angeles labor attorney Howard Fabrick, a former chief negotiator for the AMPTP, said a strike threat would not give SAG much leverage in the talks. Rather, it would create animosity and cause added tension in the negotiations. "The attitude across the table in dealing with a union that has sought strike authority tends to harden, as opposed to a union that is bargaining in good faith and trying to make a deal," Fabrick said. "The employer may find the strike authorization the equivalent of an ultimatum. That undercuts the effort. "If they failed to get a strike vote, it would put them between a rock and a hard place," he added. Allen and Rosenberg may have already muddied the waters with the AMPTP when they met Monday with execs at Sony Pictures, Fabrick said. Such actions are often considered an attempt to undercut the authority of the collective bargaining representative, he noted. "I would be rather upset if someone went around me and went to members of my committee or the groups I represented and tried to sabotage my role as a negotiator," Fabrick said. "I think (the AMPTP's Nick Counter) would react the same way I have." While members of the WGA negotiating committee met with studio heads during the strike, those meetings had the blessings of Counter because of the breakdown between the Writers Guild negotiators and the AMPTP. "Frankly, the AMPTP bargaining committee was going nowhere and the Writers Guild couldn't bargain with them," Fabrick said. "The AMPTP elected essentially surrogates to deal with it." SAG board member Christie said SAG's leaders would have to present "a real good case" to convince members to vote for a strike. And right now, he doesn't believe there is enough there to justify a strike vote. He also suggested that any bid to undercut AFTRA's pact by blocking ratification would further lessen SAG's chance that the membership would authorize a strike. SAG and the AMPTP said after their meeting Thursday that talks will continue Monday. |
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06-07-2008, 11:53 AM
| #11 (permalink) |
| JLH Nut |  Thank-you again to Jim for this..... AFTRA sends deal to members SAG steps up the fight By Leslie Simmons - The Hollywood Reporter June 6, 2008, 10:13 PM Corrected: June 6, 2008, 10:37 PM AFTRA's national committee on Friday "overwhelmingly" voted in favor of the tentative primetime/TV agreement reached with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers last month. The contract now goes to its 70,000 members for ratification. Earlier in the day, SAG leaders voted to try to torpedo that ratification vote, with its national executive board agreeing by a narrow margin to spend an initial $75,000 on a campaign to encourage dual card members to vote down the tentative AFTRA deal. The SAG vote was taken during an in-person and video conference meeting with SAG's national executive board. One source put the vote at 13 in favor, 10 opposed. SAG and AFTRA share 44,000 members, and SAG is looking to those members to vote against the AFTRA contract. Results are expected to be announced on or about July 7. SAG's vote comes after president Alan Rosenberg and national executive director Doug Allen sent AFTRA a letter Thursday asking it to delay the member ratification vote. AFTRA refused. "It has become clear over recent days of bargaining that the prospect of an immediate ratification vote on the proposed AFTRA Exhibit A contract is distracting the industry from seriously engaging on SAG's proposals and has the unfortunate prospect of interfering with SAG's ability to exercise its leverage for the benefit of all actors, members of either or both of our unions," the letter stated. In response, AFTRA president Roberta Reardon and national executive director Kim Roberts Hedgpeth told SAG "in our view, delaying this process would not be in the best interest of our members. Nor do we believe there is anything about AFTRA's ratification process that would 'distract' either SAG or the industry from good faith negotiations or in any way be 'interfering' with the guild's negotiations with the AMPTP." Sources say AFTRA board members were furious over SAG's letter, calling it "blackmail." They are also angry about their sister actor union's push to get members to vote down the AFTRA contract. Sources close to SAG said the vote over the fight against AFTRA was divided between the West Coast members who are part of the "Membership First" faction, which received the majority, and East Coast members. Said one member who attended the meeting: "Basically, it was all the Membership First people rabidly embracing this idea and the others opposing it, as predicted." Asked about the campaign to sway AFTRA voters, Allen said: "We will be communicating the results of (our) analysis to our membership and will be educating SAG members about the impact of the AFTRA deal on our negotiations and on our effort to secure the best possible contract for actors." SAG plans to hold a "solidarity rally" on Monday morning at its Wilshire Boulevard headquarters in Los Angeles. Susan Savage, a SAG board member and member of Membership First, has described it as an anti-AFTRA contract rally. In an e-mail on Thursday, Savage encouraged members to vote down the AFTRA contract and also inferred that Tom Hanks and George Clooney had phoned Rosenberg to tell them that they supported SAG's position. Hanks and Clooney denied the claim. A SAG spokesperson said Savage has since apologized for not being clear in her message, noting that Savage meant to say that Hanks and Clooney are in support of SAG's overall negotiations, not the anti-AFTRA contract initiative. For 27 years, SAG and AFTRA had jointly negotiated the primetime/TV portion of their performers contract. But AFTRA voted to suspend the agreement and bargain on its own after more than a year of locking horns with SAG leaders over various issues. AFTRA reached its tentative deal on May 28. SAG is in negotiations with the AMPTP; its deal expires June 30. AFTRA's agreement includes a bump in actor rates over three years, jurisdiction over new media and retaining, for now, consent over the use of clips in new media for nonpromotional use. In an open letter Friday to members, AFTRA negotiating committee member David Basche wrote the union "won a great contract," including a 10% increase in minimums over the contract term that was "far greater than the AMPTP wanted to agree to and were achieved only because we did not back down and stayed focused, calm and strong on the members' behalf." "I think it's damn good, more than expected," he wrote, "and some of these increases are the first in almost a decade: Hard won and well deserved." |
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06-08-2008, 04:58 PM
| #18 (permalink) |
| JLH Nut | Thank-you to Jim for this.... SAG goes to war against AFTRA Legal action threatened By DAVE MCNARY - VARIETY With SAG's feature-TV negotiations with the majors nowhere near a deal, the Screen Actors Guild's going to war with rival union AFTRA over the latter's primetime deal. The extraordinary move against the American Federation of Television & Radio Artists prompted AFTRA to warn SAG that it will face legal action if it pursues that course. A badly divided SAG national executive committee approved Friday the launch of a campaign against AFTRA's recently approved primetime deal with the nets. The move came on the same day that AFTRA leaders turned down a request by SAG to delay the ratification vote, with the guild arguing that AFTRA's process was "distracting" the industry from making a deal with SAG. Though SAG has not yet announced its opposition to the AFTRA deal, several SAG board members have blistered the AFTRA pact as inadequate and portrayed AFTRA as a "company" union. AFTRA national exec director Kim Roberts Hedgpeth and president Roberta Reardon blasted the SAG effort in a sharply worded reply to SAG counterparts Doug Allen and Alan Rosenberg. "We are reserving judgment about the accuracy of statements SAG elected leaders and staff intend to undermine the merits of our members' tentative agreement and disrupt our ratification process," the duo wrote. "Such unprecedented interference in the internal affairs of another union is the antithesis of good unionism." Hedgpeth and Reardon also warned SAG that it could face legal action. "We hope it will not be necessary to pursue legal remedies but be aware that we would view any attempt by SAG or its leadership to undermine or interfere with our ratification process as a violation of both the law and the AFL-CIO constitution," they added. The move by SAG to take on AFTRA comes with SAG's contract expiring on June 30. The guild hasn't set a strike authorization vote, which would require a 75% approval, and has opted instead to convince the 44,000 SAG members who also hold AFTRA cards to vote down the AFTRA deal as inadequate. SAG will hold a "solidarity" rally Monday at SAG headquarters and a town hall meeting Wednesday. The Writers Guild of America, which received extensive support from SAG during its 100-day strike, issued a call to its members to attend the rally. "We all remember how SAG members turned out in numbers to picket, march and rally with us during our contract campaign and strike," the WGA said. "Now it’s our turn to be there for them." SAG leaders have indicated that they need to get a better deal than AFTRA in such areas as DVDs, new media compensation, force majeure, clip consent for online use and product integration. SAG has met for 24 days with the majors but isn't believed to be near a deal yet, despite its June 30 contract expiration. SAG and AFTRA are negotiating separately for the first time in three decades due to bitter jurisdictional disputes, triggered when AFTRA leaders asserted they could no longer trust SAG leaders. The majors have indicated they're unwilling to give SAG a significantly better deal than AFTRA received. In their letter to AFTRA, Allen and Rosenberg blamed the AFTRA ratification for the SAG's lack of progress at the negotiating table. "It has become clear over recent days that the prospect of an immediate ratification vote on the proposed AFTRA Exhibit A contract is distracting the industry from seriously engaging on SAG's proposals and has the unfortunate prospect of interfering with SAG's ability to exercise its leverage for the benefit of all actors, members of either or both of our unions," the SAG duo said. Allen and Rosenberg also offered to make certain that any gains SAG received at the bargaining table would be added to the AFTRA deal. In their response Hedgpeth and Roberts also said that AFTRA's national board had approved its primetime deal "overwhelmingly" and sent it to members for ratification with results to be announced July 7. The deal covers 10 series and featured gains in salaries and jurisdiction on low-budget made-for-the shows plus language allowing actors to opt out of online clip usage at the time of employment. "In our view, delaying the process would not be in the best interest of our members," they said. "Nor do we believe there is anything about AFTRA's ratification process that would 'distract' either SAG or the industry from good faith negotiations or in any way be 'interfering' with the guild's negotiations with the AMPTP. In any event, given our timeline, by the way time the results of our ratification process are announced, SAG will have been back at the table with the employers for more than five weeks." SAG is due back at the table with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers on Monday following a three-day recess. It's likely to be an uphill battle for SAG to convince its dual cardholders to vote down the AFTRA deal since AFTRA's most recent ratification vote on its nonprimetime network code pact garnered 93% support among AFTRA members who voted. SAG hasn't yet indicated how it will attack the AFTRA deal. After AFTRA turned down the SAG request for a delay in ratification, Allen issued a brief statement Friday saying that SAG leaders had analyzed the AFTRA deal, which was reached on May 28 after 18 days of negotiations. "We will be communicating the results of that analysis to our membership and will be educating SAG members about the impact of the AFTRA deal on our negotiations and on our effort to secure the best possible contract for actors," he said. |
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06-08-2008, 05:17 PM
| #19 (permalink) | |
| Junior Member | Quote:
If Love were a member of AFTRA only then she could work on Season 4 of GW after July 1 as her union has come to an agreement with the employers.  If Love is a member of SAG only OR of both unions then she will probably be on strike after June 30 and so cannot work on Season 4 of GW as SAG has NOT come to an agreement with the employers.  | |
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