Embroiled in stalled negotiations with producers on a new TV and film deal, SAG is seeking an extension of its soon-to-expire Commercials Contract and to jointly negotiate a new version with AFTRA, the sister union with which it has been fighting for more than a year, several sources familiar with the proposal have told Strike Watch.
SAG national executive director Doug Allen made the request in a letter to Mathis Dunn, AFTRA's chief commercials contract negotiator, on July 9, a day after the guild failed to defeat ratification of AFTRA's new prime-time television pact, a source close to AFTRA said. Two weeks later, AFTRA staffers asked their counterparts at SAG to take the proposal to the guild's national board, and AFTRA is still waiting for a response, the source said.
According to a report today on Variety.com, board members approved the proposal in their meeting Saturday. Guild sources confirmed the approval to Strike Watch. If the unions get approval from the Joint Policy Committee, which negotiates for advertisers and advertising agencies, the contract will be extended for six months. Without an extension, the deal would expire Oct. 29. Approval from the JPC is very likely, sources said.
A representative for the JPC could not be reached to comment, while a SAG official wrote in an email, "This is a subject of discussion between the JPC, AFTRA and SAG. Beyond that we have no comment."
The existing Commercials Contract was extended once in 2006, for two years, so that the unions and JPC could hire an independent consultant to study advertising in new media. SAG and AFTRA need another because of their bruising battles with each other and arduous negotiations with studio and network producers. Sources said that so much time has been spent on trying to ratify a deal (in AFTRA's case) or trying to get a tentative deal (in SAG's case), that they have not had adequate time to prepare for the commercial negotiations.
Preparations include holding meetings with the rank and file to hear what their priorities and concerns are. Negotiators also need to assess the study, conducted by Booz Allen Hamilton. The last time the Commercials Contract was fully renegotiated was in 2003; since then, online advertising has nearly tripled, from $7.27 billion to $21.2 billion in 2007, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau. Meantime, TV and radio advertising have seen little to no growth.
Perhaps most important, the unions would have more leverage together rather than apart, the sources said, and the JPC does not want to negotiate a new contract twice. Based on the stalemate between the guild and the AMPTP, "no one needs any further proof what an unqualified disaster" bargaining separately has been, a guild source said.
Until this spring, SAG and AFTRA almost always jointly negotiated major contracts under an agreement known as Phase One, because there are about 44,000 actors who belong to each union. Allen, SAG national president Alan Rosenberg, and Membership First, the party that has a controlling interest on the National Board, have objected to the terms of Phase One, which calls for 50-50 representation on the negotiating committees, even though SAG has much more of the jurisdiction in prime-time TV and in TV commercials. (AFTRA has no jurisdiction in film, and SAG has no jurisdiction in radio.) AFTRA and the guild's New York and regional members have insisted that original voting rules be maintained, and they would be for this round of negotiating, sources said.
A long-simmering feud between the labor groups--centering on Phase One voting and jurisdiction in basic cable--boiled over in late March, when allegations arose that SAG tried to take over jurisdiction for the soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful. SAG has denied the charges. AFTRA officials said the jurisdictional spat was "the last straw" in what they felt was a negative and public campaign to undermine their credibility with actors.
As a result, AFTRA suspended the Phase One agreement and negotiated a new broadcast, prime-time TV contract on its own for the first time in nearly three decades. Before the contract was ratified by AFTRA members, however, SAG waged a month-long campaign to defeat the contract by heavily lobbying joint cardholders through a rally, advertisements in trade publications, mass emails, online video testimonials, and pre-recorded phone messages from high-profile actors such as Sandra Oh.
The contract passed with slightly more than 62 percent of the vote; however, contracts of this nature often receive more than 80 percent approval.
Sources from the SAG and AFTRA boards weren't clear what impact an agreement to return to Phase One would have on the guild's national board elections in the fall. Membership First has long wanted to sever ties with AFTRA, while the newly organized opposition party, Unite for Strength, wants the unions to merge. About one-third of the national board seats are up for grabs. If Unite for Strength wins five or more seats on the Hollywood Division board, it could tilt the balance of power to the pro-merger forces.
--Andrew Salomon
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