September 9, 2008 by WW.

Variety is out tonight with a story that shouldn’t really surprise anyone who’s been paying attention. Proving that so-called undercutting doesn’t always matter, in the past two months, show after primetime show has signed with AFTRA, even though those shows are paying higher salaries than SAG shows, which are still being produced under the expired and lower-priced TV-Theatrical contract.

 The article quotes Membership First-hired SAG General Counsel Duncan Crabtree-Ireland as calling the signings “some blips,” but notes that

“Among the recent shows that have gone with AFTRA are the CW’s “90210″ and “Reaper”; CBS’ new sitcom “Gary Unmarried”; and two shows just picked up to series at ABC: comedy “Better Off Ted” and hourlong “The Unusuals.” ABC’s recently wrapped drama pilot “Prince of Motor City” is also AFTRA.”

Another important line in the story “Beyond the short-term strike threat, studio brass say they’ve generally grown wary of SAG and its recent management turmoil and bitter factional fighting.”

The story notes that the ultimate test of how badly SAG has been damaged by the Allens’ failure to negotiate a successor TV-Theatrical agreement will come with the upcoming pilot season, and quotes AFTRA’s longtime TV Department head Joan Halpern Weise as saying AFTRA isn’t doing anything special to take advantage of the Allens’ blunders.

“”As far as I can see, it’s really business as usual for us,” Weise said. “What we’ve seen is that there’s been a shift in (production) technology and the longstanding relationships that we have with these producers.”

Weise, a 27-year AFTRA vet, notes that there’s historically been an ebb and flow of scripted primetime series coverage for AFTRA (among the bigger hits done under AFTRA contracts were “Roseanne,” “Married … With Children” and “All in the Family”), which she likens to a “pendulum swing” between the two unions.

AFTRA has not done any special outreach to Hollywood’s creative community in response to the SAG situation, Weise said.

“They don’t need any education on our contract,” Weise said. “They know what our contract is.”"

–
Update: If you’re reading carefully, the other Duncan Crabtree-Ireland quotes in the Variety story are a real backhanded slap at the negotiating strategy, and an admission that the Allens have failed. What he’s saying is that there will be no strike, and that the economic terms of TV-Theatrical aren’t going to improve.

Variety quotes Crabtree-Ireland as saying “I believe the producers realize that most of the economic nuts and bolts of the deal have been worked out with the AMPTP, so they are not holding back out of fear of big surprises under the new deal.”

This appears to be a confirmation that the Allens have caved on the campaign promise to double DVD revenue, and have basically agreed with the economic terms in the AMPTP’s “last, best and final” offer - the same one they’ve spent hundreds of thousands of dollars criticizing, trying unsuccessfully to defeat when AFTRA ratified it, and hundreds of thousands more fighting with their bungled push poll trojan mailer.

Posted in Exhibit A - TV Theatrical, SAG-AFTRA | Print | 33 Comments »

September 9, 2008 by Editor.

It’s not clear yet how it happened or exactly who’s responsible, nor is it clear whether there’s a sinister ballot box stuffing motive, but it seems some portion of the membership received multiple push poll postcards, giving them the opportunity to vote more than once in the already tainted referendum on the TV-Theatrical negotiations. We don’t yet know whether the additional cards were sent out to a specific branch of the membership, or whether it’s random across the full union.

There’s been no official comment from 5757, but we’re getting reports of staff seeming confused when members call asking what’s going on.

Expect finger pointing to commence immediately. What this means to the push poll results, if anything, remains to be seen. What, if any cost there will be to fix the mess also remains to be seen.

Posted in SAG Politics | Print | 69 Comments »