October 27, 2008 by WW.

Matching e-mails:

ATTENTION ALL SAG and AFTRA MEMBERS

Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists are pleased to announce the beginning of the Joint Wages & Working Conditions (W&W) process in preparation for negotiation of the Commercials Contracts that were extended from October 31, 2008 to March 31, 2009. It is only through the involvement of members that proposals for this vital negotiation are developed.

There are four ways to make your voice heard:

Joint Commercials Contracts Caucuses - Join your fellow members to discuss what really matters! Open to all paid-up SAG and AFTRA members, the caucuses are free-form sessions where you can express any issue you feel should be addressed in the upcoming negotiations. Input from the caucuses directly effects the proposals formed by the Joint Wages & Working Conditions Committees.

Joint Wages & Working Conditions Committee Meetings - These formal meetings use the information and ideas gathered from the caucuses to create proposals for the 2009 contract negotiations.

Note: Upcoming dates for Caucuses and W&W meetings in Hollywood and New York will be emailed soon. Regional Branch and Local members should contact your local branch staff and visit the SAG or AFTRA websites for local dates and times.

Email Suggestions - Can’t make it to a caucus or committee meeting? You can still play an active part by emailing your ideas to commercialswandw@sag.org or at commercialswandw@aftra.com. All proposal recommendations will be reviewed by the Joint Wages & Working Conditions Committee.

On-site Suggestion Box - Boxes will be placed in the SAG committee office at 5757 Wilshire Blvd (1st Fl.) in L.A. and 360 Madison Ave. (12th FL.) in N.Y and at the AFTRA Offices located at 5757 Wilshire Blvd (9th floor) and 260 Madison Avenue (7th floor) in New York. Feel free to drop-in your contract-related thoughts and concerns. Please note that the last day for suggestions is Friday December 5, 2008.

SAG and AFTRA MEMBERS–Don’t forget to vote on November 4th. Let your union voices be heard.

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The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and Screen Actors Guild are pleased to announce the beginning of the Joint Wages & Working Conditions (W&W) process in preparation for negotiation of the Commercials Contracts that were extended from October 31, 2008 to March 31, 2009. It is only through the involvement of members that proposals for this vital negotiation are developed.

There are four ways to make your voice heard:

Joint Commercials Contracts Caucuses - Join your fellow members to discuss what really matters! Open to all paid-up AFTRA and SAG members, the caucuses are free-form sessions where you can express any issue you feel should be addressed in the upcoming negotiations. Input from the caucuses directly effects the proposals formed by the Joint Wages & Working Conditions Committees.

Joint Wages & Working Conditions Committee Meetings - These formal meetings use the information and ideas gathered from the caucuses to create proposals for the 2009 contract negotiations.

Note: Upcoming dates for Caucuses and W&W meetings in Hollywood and New York will be emailed soon. Regional Branch and Local members should contact your local branch staff and visit the AFTRA and SAG websites for local dates and times.

Email Suggestions - Can’t make it to a caucus or committee meeting? You can still play an active part by emailing your ideas to commercialswandw@aftra.com or commercialswandw@sag.org. All proposal recommendations will be reviewed by the Joint Wages & Working Conditions Committee.

On-site Suggestion Box - Boxes will be placed in the AFTRA offices located at 5757 Wilshire Blvd (9th floor) and 260 Madison Avenue (7th floor) in New York, and in the SAG committee office at 5757 Wilshire Blvd (1st Fl.) in L.A. and 360 Madison Ave. (12th FL.) in N.Y. Feel free to drop-in your contract-related thoughts and concerns. Please note that the last day for suggestions is Friday December 5, 2008.

AFTRA AND SAG MEMBERS–Don’t forget to vote on November 4th. Let your union voices be heard.

Posted in Commercials Contract | Print | 10 Comments »

October 27, 2008 by Editor.

On a morning on which the trades each have items describing the Allens’ “hopes” to resume negotiations on TV-Theatrical, we’re scratching our heads over one of the stranger items to pop up on a message board dominated by Membership First - an item about the blog they love to hate - but always read…us.

It all started when someone anonymously posted an item claiming that while our server is in Germany, our site “emanates from Atlanta” - whatever that means. From that astonishing (and, we think, wrong) assumption, without so much as a bit of additional detail, the poster claimed that means that the President of Atlanta’s SAG branch is the Editor of SAGWatch, that is, me. 

As we’ve said repeatedly we have no idea where our server is physically located. We hooked up with 1and1 Internet because the night we were discussing the idea of SAGWatch, someone had a computer magazine with an ad for $1.99 per month hosting, and the provider was 1and1. $1.99 per month seemed like the right price, so we signed up with them online. The decision was that simple.

It turned out that 1and1 is owned by a German company. Who knew? But it’s provided lots of room for conspiracy theorists to engage in fantasy, and that’s something we enjoy in and of itself. They’re very creative in their fantasies, and we take a certain perverse pleasure in watching them get more and more excited about their “discoveries.”

Anyway, we have no idea what “emanates from Atlanta” is supposed to mean, and we’re not going to get drawn into running down a list of the 120,000 members of SAG, denying each until, by elimination, some one is identified. But simply because this one’s so off the wall, and has the usual gang of (pardon me) idiots yapping and foaming at the mouth even more than usual, we thought we’d comment this one time. 

Ridiculous.

Posted in SAG Politics, Miscellaneous Hate Mail and Threats | Print | 17 Comments »