SAG Hardliners: The Trojan Horsemen of the Apocalypse

SAG's Hollywood branch, dominated by the hardline Membership First faction, has passed a motion forming a task force to explore "acquisition of actors of AFTRA," reports SAGWatch. The purpose of the awkwardly-phrased motion is evidently to eliminate AFTRA's jurisdiction over television acting (long a stated goal of MF), leaving it with only broadcasters (newscasters, weather reporters, etc.), singers and others, but not actors. To the same end, various MF-ers, including some who supported the motion, are running in the now-in-progress AFTRA board elections, the better to dismantle AFTRA from within.

All in all, it's yet another anti-AFTRA campaign, courtesy of the faction whose record of accomplishment includes no ratified contracts, continued opposition to the approved deal on the table, a ten month stalemate, a national board meeting featuring a 28-hour filibuster, a lawsuit against their own union (which continues to this day despite rejection at both the trial and appellate levels), a gaping budget deficit, a loss of almost all pilots and new series to AFTRA, contract rates that are lower than AFTRA's and will continue to be so for at least the next two years, a loss of tens of millions of dollars in wages to date (due to lower rates in effect during the stalemate), a virtual halt to studio theatrical production for the duration of the stalemate, denigration of the union's own membership as "frightened little children" and of the union's own lawyers as "liars," continued factionalism and infighting, disparagement of AFTRA as a "scumbag union," and the fostering of enmity from members of other unions (particularly IATSE, obviously AFTRA, and, no doubt, the DGA) throughout the industry. Quite a platform for the upcoming SAG elections.

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Comments

[MattMulhern]

First: nobody cares Jonathan. You get no comments here anymore. You know why? The lack of comments due to glitches in HuffPo's fairly recent upgrade when trying to comment (despite the tech people saying everything is fine. It's not. I used to post constantly on HuffPo. Now? Never? Why? It's a pain in the ass, comment length is WAY too short, and when you submit it in chopped up pieces, they print it out of order and leave out entire chunks - but "nothing's wrong" - so says the tech department at HuffPo. Whatever.)

I'll keep it short. your entire premise is: MF blew it and now SAG is screwed. Here's the real story Jonathan: SAG needs to sign, in this TV/Theatrical contract, a deal for new media, which translates to "no matter WHAT or HOW or WHEN the producers or distributors or producers/­distributo­rs (WHOEVER MAKES THE MONEY) of content on the internet - MAKES MONEY? SAG actors MUST get their fair share.

This contract? Does NOT say that. EVERYTHING else you argue - EVERYTHING - is inconsequential.