January 1, 2009 by Editor.

>Our first post in the SAGWatch blog was June 8, 2008, as the Allens were gearing up their anti-AFTRA Exhibit A campaign. It drew three comments.

Since then, there have been 5069 comments (not counting the spam or other stuff we deleted). This will be post #653.

From June 8 until December 31, 2008, people had looked at those posts 537,672 times.

In the pre-blog format our first post was Dec. 13, 2007, and we logged 51,018 visits prior to switching over to the blog.

From 107 visits that month, we had hits 117,698 one year later. Our only publicity has been word of mouth.

When we started this, we weren’t sure where it was going, or even if we were going anywhere. We’re just blown away. Thanks for caring about your unions enough to visit us.

Posted in SAG Politics, Union Politics, Media Business, SAG-AFTRA | Print | 12 Comments »

December 31, 2008 by Editor.

Our opinion? Ultimately, it’s not a terrible concept.

But does Membership First really need another $120,000 rebuke, to be paid for by the people delivering it? 

To all who work for our unions and for our members a very deeply felt thank you, and, to all, Happy New Year.  

The SAGWatch team

Posted in SAG Politics, Editorial, Union Politics, Exhibit A - TV Theatrical | Print | 42 Comments »

December 30, 2008 by WW.

In a burst of what to the inmates of 5757 must seem like optimism, but to the rest of the world may not, another e-mail message from the Allens has emerged. It presupposes something we don’t - that after the Jan. 12-13 National Board meeting, the Strike Authorization referendum will go out as the Allens planned.

Anyway, here’s their message (and don’t miss that they’re promising even more!): 

Subject: Know the Facts Regarding a Strike Authorization
Date: Tue, 30 Dec 2008 06:12:10 -0800
From: Screen Actors Guild
Reply-To: Screen Actors Guild
To: SAG Members

The following message is the first in a series of responses to members’ questions at recent Town Hall meetings and sent to us via email. Please watch for additional messages over the coming weeks.

Know the facts!
Will a SAG TV/Theatrical strike “shut down the Industry?” NO WAY!

If the SAG National Board is authorized to call a strike, we all hope a strike will not be necessary. But, if the National Board decides to call one, it will not “shut down the Industry.” Why not? Because the National Board’s decision would have no effect on work done under the Guild’s other contracts.

In the event of a TV/Theatrical strike, work done under other SAG contracts would continue to be governed by those contracts, not the TV/Theatrical contracts. That means jobs in commercials, basic cable, video games and industrials would continue during a TV/Theatrical strike. Also, jobs would continue on more than 800 independent movie projects by producers not associated with AMPTP companies, and on more than 800 independent new media projects under SAG’s new media agreement.

A strike of our TV/Theatrical contracts would be a serious step we hope to avoid, but even if the working actors on SAG’s National Board were authorized and ultimately voted to call a strike, that decision would affect only work on primetime network shows, pay TV shows (e.g., HBO), and movies made, financed or distributed by AMPTP companies (e.g., Sony, Warner Bros., Disney, Twentieth Century Fox, Paramount, NBC Universal, etc.). Not “the entire industry.”

Also, actors on any shows signed to AFTRA before the effective date of such a strike would be required by their personal contract and AFTRA’s CBA to report to work on any AFTRA-covered projects in its jurisdiction (primarily dramatic network primetime and pay TV shows, and movies made for television or DVD.)

Please visit the SAG website at www.sag.org for up to the minute information and email your questions or comments to www.Contract2008@sag.org (this is an email address and not a live web link.)

Sincerely,

Doug Allen

Posted in Union Politics, Exhibit A - TV Theatrical | Print | 10 Comments »

December 24, 2008 by admin.

We’re taking a break for the holiday. Barring the unlikely event of the AMPTP playing Santa and us noticing that they did it, we’re all putting union activity aside, and heading for family activities.

We hope you’re all doing the same, and that your holidays are a lot better than this past year!

Posted in Commercials Contract, Interactive, Animation Contract, Basic Cable, SAG Politics, Editorial, Exhibit A - TV Theatrical, Media Business, Union Politics, SAG-AFTRA | Print | 31 Comments »

December 20, 2008 by Editor.

Melissa Gilbert’s op ed in The Los Angeles Times this week had one particularly pointed warning to the Allens, a point the Times drove it home this morning.

“It’s no secret that SAG is now a guild divided against itself, with a hugely influential group of stars having joined a growing legion of rank-and-file realists who are now firmly aligned against any kind of strike. Living in its own dream world, the SAG leadership is still steaming full speed ahead, Titanic-style, oblivious to all the icebergs in its path, with its plan to send out strike authorization ballots January 2nd.  The guild needs a 75% approval by those voting to forge ahead with a strike. However, in her piece, Gilbert revealed just how serious the union’s divisions are by introducing an explosive new phrase into the contentious debate, a phrase that must have sent chills down the spine of SAG president Alan Rosenberg.

Boldly predicting that many working guild members are not only determined to vote against a strike but “will not honor if one is called,” she used the phrase you only hear when a union is starting to splinter—“financial core.” Known in guild parlance as fi-core, it is the way dissenting members give up their guild membership but retain their union protection while opting to work during a strike. The fact that Gilbert even voiced the phrase tells you that Rosenberg and SAG chief negotiator Doug Allen have managed to thoroughly alienate a host of guild stalwarts with their capricious leadership.”

Now, we think taking fi-cor status is something only done by the lowest of the low, and is the equivalent of scabbing, and we’re far from certain that the strike authorization vote will be close to reaching 75%, or, if it does hit the threshold, if there actually would be a move towards fi-cor status if there were to be a strike. But that a former union president would even utter the phrase has to show everyone just how dangerous the situation is right now. 

And when we say dangerous, we don’t mean to the local economy or to the industry, we mean to SAG itself.

Posted in SAG Politics, Union Politics, Exhibit A - TV Theatrical | Print | 47 Comments »

December 18, 2008 by Editor.

Andrew Salomon’s latest BlogStage post justifiably trashes MSNBC among the other cable nets for not understanding what’s going on with the Strike Referendum. But, Andrew, MSNBC and the other cables don’t understand unions partly because they don’t have any.

Then Andrew gets to his good stuff - his version of the referendum math. And, though we think he’s making a mistake, here’s his thinking. The referendum turnout will be roughly along the lines of the bungled bar code push poll of last fall. 

” Let’s say MSNBC is right, and 80 percent of the people in Hollywood want strike authorization. The Yes voters would still have to secure 67.5 percent of the vote in the New York and Regional Branch Divisions to win the 75 percent necessary. Confused?

Let’s say only 10,000 out of 120,000 union members vote (which was roughly the tally for the push-poll earlier this year), and let’s say the voting breaks down evenly: 6,000 in Hollywood, 2,500 in New York, 1,500 in the regions. If 80 percent of Hollywood actors vote yes, that’s 4,800 total votes. They would need 2,700 out of the remaining 4,000 votes (67.5 percent) to get the magic 7,500.”

That’s where we think Salomon loses it. While we do expect the referendum to be as close to the push poll as the Allens can make it, we don’t expect the same turnout or the same split within Hollywood. Passions are higher, and the stars are out in force on this one - and not on the MF/Allens side. Also, there won’t be any barcodes to track individuals votes.

So we’re betting turnout will double the push poll’s paltry number, and that Hollywood won’t be anywhere near 80% in favor. Who’s right? We still have more than a month to go…

Posted in Union Politics, Exhibit A - TV Theatrical | Print | 7 Comments »

December 13, 2008 by Editor.

Once again members of SAG have to be wondering how we came to be a union divided by a common goal.

Mirroring the Membership First-AFTRA war, the Membership First-Unite For Strength/New York/RBD conflict is once again threatening to expand beyond relatively controlled small scale battles into open warfare. In the escalation it’s easy to forget that the differences that split SAG aren’t over the desired end result. They’re over the tactics, how to get there.

The optimists among us will see the glass as more than half full, with the elections last year likely to produce an even more stable Guild leadership. The pessimists (and maybe the realists) will see the elections as too far away to prevent prolonged chaos, with effects that could last a very long time.

Compromise right now seems very hard to find.Unite for Strength hasn’t yet shown that it has its act together enough to manage the conflict, especially given that it only has a razor thin margin on the National Board, and is plainly thinking ahead to the next election cycle.

Membership First hasn’t shown that compromise is a word in the group’s lexicon.

Fasten your seat belts. We think there’s some heavy turbulence ahead. 

Posted in SAG Politics, Union Politics, Exhibit A - TV Theatrical, SAG-AFTRA | Print | 1 Comment »

December 7, 2008 by Editor.

One of our regulars passed along a link to an interesting New York Times story about the National Football League Players Association and the losing battle it fought with its retirees. You may recall we posted the transcript of Doug Allen’s testimony in the trial a couple of days ago.The tension between the interests of the NFL actives and retirees strikes us as similar to the differences between the interests of working actors as opposed to those whose income comes from residuals - what we were trying to get to in the item we posted the other day, which has one of the most active comment strings on the blog.It’s worth a look and a second thought. 

Posted in SAG Politics, Union Politics, Exhibit A - TV Theatrical | Print | 3 Comments »

November 24, 2008 by Editor.

The National Labor Relations Board - not known for its friendliness to organized labor - has fired a shot across the bow of the Writers Guild. The Guild published a list of 28 members who’d opted for financial core status during this year’s 100 day strike. For those of us who care about our unions, those who go fi-cor are regarded as somewhere near scabs.

After the list came out, the AMPTP complained, calling the publication an Unfair Labor Practice, that is, an attempt to intimidate WGA members, in violation of the National Labor Relations Act. That complaint rattled around the bureaucracy for a while, with the WGA winning at the local level. But now the NLRB Appeals Bureau in Washington has reversed the local decision, and has ordered the NLRB LA office to file a complaint against the WGA. It’s not clear if any fine would accompany the complaint, or whether this will result in some sort of warning or other sanction.

Here’s Variety’s coverage, noting that a WGA spokesman says the union will contest the charges when the complaint comes up for a hearing.

Posted in Union Politics, Media Business | Print | 1 Comment »

November 14, 2008 by Editor.

From Variety, something we missed yesterday but something we should all note:

Four WGA West staffers were arrested for alleged trespassing Thursday while leafleting at Hollywood & Highland mall to protest “American Idol” not being under WGA jurisdiction.

The arrestees included WGA West assistant exec director Jeff Hermansonalong with guild organizers Trish Albert, Laura Watson, and Terence Long while they passed out leaflets that asserted, “FremantleMedia refuses to treat its writers fairly.”

The WGA West said the quartet was taken into custody as part of a citizen’s arrest. They were then booked on misdemeanor charges at the Los Angeles Police Department and later released after posting bond.

“We will continue to exercise our First Amendment rights despite the heavy-handed treatment we received,” Hermanson said. “The public has a right to know that the top-rated show on television does not provide their writers with basic necessities like health care.”

WGA General Counsel Tony Segall said the guild was also considering legal action against the operators of the Hollywood & Highland for false arrest.

The WGA held a month-long campaign in five cities this summer to organize reality shows by targeting allegedly unfair working conditions on “American Idol.”

FremantleMedia execs have said the allegations, which include denial of overtime pay and meal breaks, are without merit. The execs have also said the WGA’s jurisdiction demand is unreasonable because Fremantle doesn’t use writers on all shows — an assertion disputed by the guild. 

Posted in Union Politics, Media Business | Print | 2 Comments »