Phase 1

What was Phase 1?

Fully known as “The Agreement covering Phase 1 to Merger,” the Phase 1 Agreement was a contract signed in 1981 between SAG and AFTRA. It covered joint bargaining of the major contracts in the areas in which the two unions share jurisdiction. Those agreements included: TV Commercials, Prime Time Dramatic Programming, and Non Broadcast/Educational/Industrials

Phase 1 was often misunderstood, even by some of the leaders in SAG and AFTRA. In each of the Phase 1 areas there are actually two contracts with identical terms, one covering shows under SAG’s jursidiction, the other covering shows under AFTRA’s jurisdiction. Links to the contracts were here - but SAG has removed its contracts from its website, so some links may no longer work: TV Commercials: SAG contract. AFTRA Contract. Prime Time Dramatic Programming: SAG contract. AFTRA Contract..Non Broadcast/Educational/Industrials: SAG contract. AFTRA Contract. Note: some of those links may now be broken, because SAG has pulled down many of its contracts from the public section of its website.

For a quarter of a century the Phase 1 contract protected both SAG and AFTRA from the unions’ own worst instincts, by eliminating price competition between SAG and AFTRA on almost all productions. That is now over.

Is Phase 1 dead?

For all practical purposes, yes…though AFTRA is merely saying it is “suspended.”

While it seemed to have been resurrected, after a long period during which it was on again-off again and AFL-CIO leaders tried to mediate disputes between the unions, now there seems little question about it. The raiding activity conducted by Membership First and Doug Allen led AFTRA’s National Board to recognize that as long as Membership First and Allen were at SAG’s helm, war would be the outcome, and that joint negotiations were impossible.

While the SAG Constitution required adherence to it, and AFTRA was in favor of observing it, Membership First was dead set against it, and announced a referendum seeking to amend the SAG Consitution to eliminate it,  AFTRA declared  that SAG terminated the contract by imposing bloc voting, SAG rescinded the move, but while publicly engaging in work to develop joint bargaining proposals, Membership First was engaged in behind the scenes activity designed to torpedo joint talks.

BACKSTORY:

In the fall of 2007, SAG’s National Board, supposedly at the request of NED Doug Allen, narrowly passed a resolution imposing what Allen called unit (or bloc) voting on the SAG side of any Phase 1 contract negotiating committee. Because the Phase 1 contract explicitly states that each member of the negotiating committee is entitled to a vote, and because unit, or bloc voting, would result in any minority votes being discarded by SAG, AFTRA declared the unit voting resolution to be a material violation of the Phase 1 contract, and requested that SAG “cure” the breach by rescinding the unit voting resolution. SAG’s National Board refused, again by a narrow margin.

TV Theatrical W&WC sessions were not held under Phase 1, but were “jointly hosted” -  a curious turn of phrase that led to some confusion, but the final W&WC Plenary was scheduled under the formal Phase One rules, after AFTRA indicated that it isn’t waiting around for SAG to make up its mind, and is moving ahead with preparations for solo negotiations with the producers.

Should We Care if Phase 1 is dead?

That used to depend upon your perspective. Moderate and pro-merger members will stress what they see as the importance of joint negotiating, both in terms of strength at the bargaining table (bigger numbers makes for a stronger union) and in terms of eliminating the possibility of the unions being played off against each other by the producers, whether in a price competition or for any other concessions. Anti-merger and separatist members will stress what they see as the importance of SAG’s independence and star power, and suggest that litigation, raids or the threat of litigation may limit SAG losses in the event of a price war between the unions.

That was the old school thinking. Now even Membership First is saying that going it alone is a problem. More of a problem seems to be putting Humpty Dumpty back together again.

Our view is that the only winners in the SAG/AFTRA split are the producers.