The Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists are negotiating their network prime-time television contracts separately for the first time in almost 30 years. At press time, AFTRA was still in talks with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, while SAG's negotiations with the AMPTP were scheduled to resume May 28.
The two unions have always had a problematic relationship, but until this spring they usually had been able to put aside their differences when it came time to bargain jointly with management. Though the process was not always easy, it was largely effective and beneficial to actors who are members of one or both unions. By not competing against each other, the two often improved existing wages and working conditions.
That will not necessarily be the case this year. Although no one can judge the quality of deals that have yet to be struck, it is not too late to comment on the schism between the unions, a regrettable development that could continue well past negotiations on the Commercials Contract, which expires in October. This divide results from shortsightedness, partisan interests, and a failure of leadership in every quarter: in the boardrooms of SAG's Hollywood and New York branches, in the top offices at both unions, and among the rank and file.
Although the rift is the byproduct of decades of self-destructive behavior on all sides, much of the current mess can be traced to Membership First, a faction whose partisans portray themselves as the last stalwart defenders of actors but more often than not foment divisiveness that defeats their stated objective: to get the best deal they can for members.
The party, which helped bring SAG president Alan Rosenberg to power, was created by the Los Angeles-based group that defeated the unions' last attempt to merge, in 2003, even though a significant majority in each union supported the initiative. (AFTRA voters cleared the 60 percent hurdle needed for passage, but SAG narrowly missed when only 58 percent of the electorate approved.) The argument against merger went like this: AFTRA will raid your pension and health funds, actors will come under the heel of newscasters and variety-show dancers (who are also members of the federation), and, anyway, merger isn't needed because the two unions will never compete with each other in areas of shared jurisdiction.
What has happened since? AFTRA's health and retirement funds, which used to be a shambles, now have more than $2 billion in assets. Second, a majority members of AFTRA's TV negotiating committee are also SAG members who routinely work the contracts on which they bargain. Last, the two unions are waging a bitter jurisdictional battle in basic cable. Ironically, some of those who argued that competition would never happen now use the current fight as their argument for why all actors should abandon AFTRA and only work under SAG contracts.
Rosenberg and Doug Allen, SAG's national executive director, have exacerbated the situation through a combative posture and a series of maneuvers they either initiated or vigorously supported, including bloc voting and a referendum to remake Phase One, the unions' joint bargaining agreement, on terms more beneficial to the guild.
If the present catastrophe started with Membership First, then AFTRA officials and SAG's New York board -- frequently at odds with the guild's Membership First-dominated board in Hollywood -- have done nothing to fix the damage. They seem to wallow in past defeats, namely the failed merger in '03 and the six-month commercials strike in 2000. Although that work stoppage seemed to hit New York-based performers harder than those in L.A., it yielded higher overall contributions to the guild's pension and health plans, according to a SAG study. By viewing the 2000 strike in limited terms, AFTRA and SAG New York have undercut the best weapon that unions have, the threat of a work stoppage -- something that is essential to maintain when negotiating with the largest media conglomerates in the world.
Like their SAG counterparts, AFTRA's Roberta Reardon and Kim Roberts Hedgpeth have exacerbated tensions between the unions; in their case, they initially refused to share details of their basic-cable contracts. As usually happens, secrecy bred fear and contributed greatly to the climate of mistrust. Worse, in late March, when it seemed the two unions had set aside their differences to maintain Phase One and bargain jointly with producers, AFTRA's leaders and board members opted out, in part because of allegations that SAG was raiding AFTRA's jurisdiction in soaps. Raiding, if it indeed happened, is a serious matter, but it could have been dealt with after talks with producers, perhaps the most important negotiations since 1960, when residuals were established.
The strategy and rhetoric employed on all sides of this debate are not the work of leaders; they are the acts of children, because each side retreats to tired arguments that have failed repeatedly to persuade the other. Because the conversation does not progress, the interests of actors are not served; if actors are not served, then officers and staffers are derelict in the duties for which they were elected and hired.
As for actors, they too have failed, because a vast majority of them never vote -- on contracts or for elected officials. They may feel helpless because of entrenched party politics, but that's no excuse to opt out of the process. And the effects of their apathy are revealed in the actions of leaders who have chosen to stand divided -- which by any definition is the antithesis of union.
To fix the problem, the following has to happen:
1. Each union's national board should unanimously pass a binding resolution to draft a merger referendum that will be voted on by the union's members. This is not a binding resolution to merge; it is a resolution to let the rank and file decide the issue again. (We believe that merger, though imperfect, is a necessary solution, because it increases the bargaining power of all union members in the age of media consolidation.)
2. The national boards should unanimously pass a binding resolution that establishes equal terms for organizing in basic cable. This ensures there will be no undercutting that suppresses wages, residual rates, or benefits.
3. Each board should unanimously pass a binding resolution that reiterates stated rules against organizing the other's territory. This would include spinoffs of existing shows for which one union has established jurisdiction.
These measures will require trust and compromise, and passage will be difficult. But executing a task in the face of extreme challenges is the backbone of every good actor's performance. The same is true for good leaders.
-- Back Stage Staff
