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On Cusp of AFTRA's "Damn Good" Deal, SAG Sends Threat
After months of talks, AFTRA's national committee on Friday voted "overwhelmingly" in favor of a tentative actors' contract with the AMPTP that was reached May 28. Following the thumbs-up vote, the deal goes out to the 70,000 members for ratification, says the Reporter.
Yet, despite the warm fuzzies AFTRA's feeling over what negotiating committee member David Basche calls a "damn good" deal — with fee increases that he says are some of the first in a decade — SAG rained some demands on the parade. Screen Actors Guild leaders asked AFTRA on Thursday to delay member ratification, asserting that the deal would "distract" the industry from SAG's leverage in working out their own contract, ostensibly for the benefit of all actors.
AFTRA, however, refused to comply, with some board members even calling the SAG power-play "blackmail." Of course, there's the added complication of some cross-organizational factions that are said to be largely split between coasts — and they can't even rap about it. SAG's hoping dual card-carrying members (there are about 44,000 of them) vote against the AFTRA deal, a goal the SAG board will be pushing via a $150,000 campaign on the topic.
The good news is that it sounds like some progress is being made for actors, even if inter-union diplomacy is still lacking. Next up? We'll see how AFTRAites respond to the contract, with results to be ready around July 7. — Anna Dimond
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Jun 6, 2008 11:17 PM
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I think the point is that a lot of actors do not think it's a 'damn good deal' and expected that the AFTRA negotiating team and committee would think anything the AMPTP wanted as a 'damn good deal'...
I guess we'll find out if it is really a 'damn good deal' when the dual card holders vote, because they are the ones who have to work under the 'damn good deal', not the broadcasters, news people and voice over people who are not affected by the parts of the contract actors are complaining about.
It's too bad your 'reporting' doesn't give both sides of the issue.
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Jun 7, 2008 2:12 PM
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Seems to me that AFTRA only talked for 16 days with the AMPTP, that's not even one month let alone 'months'. Before that, all it did was argue with SAG.
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Jun 7, 2008 2:31 PM
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Anyone calling this deal "damn good" is full of crap. By all accounts, this is a terrible deal. The only reason AFTRA is going for it is to undercut SAG. It's horrible for the actors to have these two separate unions not working together, they will just end up with newbie actors going to AFTRA willing to work for cheap to try to get work regardless of how bad the pay and terms are.
AFTRA is basically just screwing all actors over, there will be a big dispute between them and SAG and I'll bet that SAG ends up with an actors strike.
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Jun 10, 2008 9:47 AM
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SAG should stop trying to be a bully and let AFTRA alone. SAG has just squandered all this time after the writer's strike when they should have been concentrating on negotiating their own contract. If there is a strike then it will be more devastating than the last strike. There already is a defacto work stoppage going on.
I will be pissed off if this ends up canceling some of my favorite shows like Pushing Daisies or affect new shows I'm psyched for like Dollhouse and Fringe.
The SAG negotiators just need to grow up and agree on a contract.
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Jun 27, 2008 2:35 AM
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