The Screen Actors Guild has another round of talks set for Thursday afternoon with the AMPTA, after SAG failed in its efforts to get members of rival union AFTRA to vote down their contract with the studios. Instead, it passed with 62.4% of the votes. SAG will be delivering its response to what AMPTA had called its “final offer,” modeled on the AFTRA agreement.
Approval by AFTRA members means that production is assured for the primetime television programming where AFTRA has jurisdiction. However, many of the hit series on network television are under SAG jurisdiction and SAG is the actors union for nearly all movie production.
“Today’s vote reflects the ability of AFTRA members to recognize a solid contract when they see it. Despite an unprecedented disinformation campaign aimed at interfering with our ratification process, a majority of members ultimately focused on what mattered—the obvious merits of a labor agreement that contains substantial gains for every category of performer in both traditional and new media,” said AFTRA National President Roberta Reardon after the vote was announced.
“Clearly, this was not a typical ratification process, and it would be disingenuous to pretend otherwise. To those of us for whom labor solidarity is more than just a slogan, the idea that politically-motivated leaders of one union would use their members’ dues to attack another union is unconscionable. Working people do not benefit when their union is under attack,” she said.
Despite that swipe at SAG, AFTRA insists that it wants union solidarity. “We will seek to organize a summit of top actors, performers, and union leaders to engage in a thoughtful, constructive discussion of how we can achieve unity among performers—and ultimately, if feasible, merger of the performers’ unions,” AFTRA declared.
SAG representatives are due to meet with AMPTA this afternoon and deliver the union’s response to the latest offer from the studios. It does not sound like SAG is ready to accept that offer, which largely mirrors the AFTRA deal. “We will continue to address the issues of importance to actors that AFTRA left on the table and we remain committed to achieving a fair contract for SAG actors,” the union said in a statement.
AFTRA said it has contracts which cover more than 70% of the programming hours on major network television.
AFTRA primetime TV dramas and situation comedies include “Rules of Engagement,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” “Flight of the Conchords,” “Dante’s Cove,” “Til Death,” “Reaper,” “Project Gary,” “Harper’s Island,” “Roman’s Empire,” and the new “90210.”
The AFTRA Network Code, which was ratified by AFTRA members on April 30, also covers actors and all on-camera and off-camera talent on all forms of television programming: reality shows, syndicated dramas, daytime serials, game shows, talk shows, variety and musical programs, news, sports, and promotional announcements. Programs covered by the Code include “American Idol,” “Dancing with the Stars,” “Late Show with David Letterman,” “Good Morning America,” “20/20,” “The View,” “The Tonight Show,” “Oprah,” “The Price is Right,” “Deal or No Deal,” “America’s Next Top Model,” “Days of Our Lives,” “All My Children,” “Cake,” “Saturday Night Live,” “Entertainment Tonight,” and “Survivor,” among others.
RBR/TVBR observation: AFTRA leadership immediately called for mending the rift between the performers’ unions and even spoke of hopes for an eventual merger. That seems pretty unlikely, at least with the current leadership of SAG in place. Now that AMPTA has completed contracts with the writers, directors and the AFTRA portion of actors, the studios are pressing SAG leadership to let members vote on the studio offer that is much like the AFTRA agreement. It remains to be seen what more SAG negotiators will hold out for at the bargaining table. Just as the WGA strike cost the writers far more than they gained, it seems it would be hard for SAG to justify a strike of its own – but don’t rule out that possibility.
