SAG Board Approves Two Contracts

For one day at least, the SAG national board had a common sense of purpose, unanimously approving the commercials contract and preparing to send it to the rank-and-file for ratification. It brought to mind the days before the guild was riven with internecine fighting.

Then Sunday came around and the board was divided again over whether to send the tentative deal with TV and film producers on a new two-year contract to members as well. Still, the self-described moderates were able to get the votes they needed, raising the possibility--and we underscore possibility--that SAG's two biggest contracts could be settled by Memorial Day.

For the commercials contract, SAG negotiated together with AFTRA, a sister union. According to their joint statement, here are some of the highlights of the three-year-deal:

* 5.5 percent overall increase in wages and other compensation over the life of the contracts, including a 4.43 percent increase, effective April 1, 2009, in Class A, Wild Spot, and basic cable session and use fees. 

* For product moved over to the Internet or in New Media, compensation of 1.3 times the minimum session fee for eight weeks of use and 3.5 times the minimum session fee for one year's use. 

* For product made for the Internet or new media, a new minimum rate structure of 1.3 times the minimum session fee for eight weeks of use and 3.5 times the minimum session fee for one year's use, effective in the third year of the contract. 

* 0.5 percent increases in the employer contribution rate to the AFTRA health-and-retirement and SAG pension-and-health plans, and a 0.2 percent increase in employer contributions to the SAG Industry Advancement Cooperative Fund and the AFTRA-Industry Cooperative Fund, bringing the total contribution rate to 15.5 percent. Effective in year three, the agreement provides for a cap on P&H and H&R contributions for services covered by the contracts to $1 million per performer, per contract, per year with anticipated net gains in SAG's pension-and-health fund and AFTRA's health-and-retirement fund over the term of the contract. 

* Secured five new covered jobs for commercial extras, up from 40 to 45. 

As for the much-more-complicated TV/film contract, the board approved it by 53.38 percent to 46.62 percent, strictly along party lines, according to one participant who requested anonymity. That is, the self-described moderate faction--members from the New York and Regional Branch divisions, as well as the Hollywood-based party Unite for Strength--voted to approve it, and the Hollywood-based Membership First faction voted against it. 

According to a SAG news release, here are the highlights of the deal:

*A two-year term of agreement concluding June 30, 2011.

*Effective annual increases comprised of 3.0 percent in wage increases and 0.5 percent in pension contributions upon ratification, and a 3.5 percent wage increase one year following ratification.

*A new media structure that tracks those achieved by other industry unions, resulting in gains for actors including jurisdiction on all derivative, made-for new media productions; automatic jurisdiction on all high-budget, original, made-for new media productions; plus jurisdiction on low budget original, new-media productions that employee at least one covered performer.

Residuals for exhibition of TV and films on consumer pay platforms (electronic sell-through) at a greater percentage than those paid for DVD distribution.

*Residuals for ad-supported streaming of feature films and television programs.

*Residuals for derivative new media programs.

*Additional five covered background actors in feature films--from 50 to 53 covered background positions upon ratification of the contract, and from 53 to 55 covered background positions in Year 2. The contract also adds one covered background position in TV, from 19 to 20, upon ratification.

*Increased compensation for guest star premium from 7.5 percent to 10 percent.

*Increased trailer money break from $2,500 to $3,000, or more per week.

*Increased overtime money break for three-day performers from $2,700 to $3,000.

There was no word when the contract ballot referenda will go out exactly, but SAG indicated in its news release that they would go out in early May.

Alan Rosenberg, Anne-Marie Johnson and others in Membership First have said they will oppose the deal. Nevertheless, when asked by Strike Watch how she felt about the weekend's developments, Johnson sounded upbeat and positive. "I'm certainly not surprised," she said of the vote's outcome. "You would have to be living on another planet if you thought the vote would be any different than what it is. Now it's up to the members, and I'm very excited about that. Unfortunately, it's not strike authorization, and it's not a referendum with a recommendation to vote no, but at least it's a referendum going out to the members."

Sam Freed, president of the New York Division and the guild's second national vice president, described the weekend as "very, very successful." He added, "We were able to send two major contracts to our membership with the recommendation to vote them up."

--Andrew Salomon

Comments

[mheister]

The tentative agreement between SAG and the AMPTP contains no substantive improvements over the AMPTP's "last best final" offer, which is substantively no better than what AFTRA has - much, much less than what the new national majority promised when they sacked Doug Allen in favor of David White.

The new media provisions are particularly egregious - free exhibition windows, tiny residuals, the ability for the moguls to directly produce low-budget new media fare outside of union jurisdiction.

NBC and Fox are heavily promoting Hulu as the alternative for watching reruns and Youtube is signing streaming deals with studios. The moguls are pushing their migration away from broadcast and cable television to the Internet as quickly as consumer acceptance and falling electronics prices will allow.

This tentative agreement would give away the store in new media, just as the creative guilds gave away the store in DVD not so long ago.

Make no mistake - this is a precedent-setter, and it will take a long and protracted multi-union strike to budge the moguls if this deal is approved.

We are, IMHO, better off with no deal than what the corporate appeasers who call themselves "moderates" would like to shove down our throats.

Vote no, and send David White back to the table with a mandate to do better - a LOT better.