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SomeAudioGuy
Contributor III
Joined: 08 Apr 2008
Posts: 75
Location: LA
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 Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2008 12:24 pm Post subject: AFTRA going solo on Interactive contract negotiation? |
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Just caught this from Michael Bell over at Deadline Hollywood.
| Quote: | ALERT TO THE VOICE-OVER COMMUNITY
"PLEASE FORWARD THIS TO EVERY VOICE-OVER ACTOR YOU KNOW"
It has come to the attention of the S.A.G. Interactive Committee, that AFTRA is about to negotiate the Interactive contract without the participation of S.A.G.
As you probably know, AFTRA and S.A.G. jointly bargained the Interactive Contract three years ago. Although the joint committees both agreed that RESIDUALS were the number one priority of the negotiations, the AFTRA committee members ultimately agreed to a contract with NO residuals. As a result, the S.A.G. committee members were left no choice but to accept the same terms.
In the three years since those negotiations, the Interactive industry has grown from $9 Billion dollars per year to $27 Billion dollars per year.
Also during that time, your S.A.G. Interactive Committee has been successful in organizing efforts that have turned a long time major non-union employer into a S.A.G. signatory with two huge projects in production.
We have been informed that AFTRA claims to be holding Wages and Working Conditions meetings with Interactive actors in preparation for their negotiations (which are said to be imminent.)
We know for a fact that a majority of the top Interactive actors (those who record numerous games each year) know nothing about AFTRA’s present W&W meetings or AFTRA's plans to go it alone in the upcoming Interactive contract negotiations.
Since AFTRA has not told the S.A.G. Interactive Committee anything about these negotiations, here are the questions all SAG actors that work that contract or expect to work that contract must ask:
1) Is AFTRA really holding Wages and Working Condition meetings with Interactive actors? And if actors are part of those meetings, who exactly has been invited?
2) What criteria did they use for their invitations?
3) Why have not all AFTRA members which are comprised mostly of VO talent been officially informed of these meetings?
4) Who is on the AFTRA committee that will be negotiating this contract?
5) What employers will be involved in these negotiations?
6) Why hasn't AFTRA contacted S.A.G. to coordinate negotiations?
7) When are the AFTRA Interactive negotiations set to begin?
 Are RESIDUALS part of AFTRA’s proposals?
9) And most importantly: Will AFTRA abandon RESIDUALS once again as they did three years ago?
You can write directly to the AFTRA Interactive negotiator Mathis Dunn.
Please demand that AFTRA hold a caucus of the entire Interactive community of actors before beginning any negotiations.
Demand that AFTRA coordinate their negotiations with S.A.G. instead of de-leveraging S.A.G. as they did in the current TV/Theatrical negotiations.
Please send a copy of your correspondence to the S.A.G. Interactive Committee.
IMPORTANT NOTE: The Interactive Contract is completely independent from the TV/Theatrical contract currently being negotiated by S.A.G. The outcome of those negotiations have absolutely nothing to do with the Interactive Contract. No job action, if any, will have anything to do with this contract.
In solidarity,
Michael Bell
S.A.G. Interactive Chair |
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Hey! Whaddaya hear?
http://someaudioguy.blogspot.com |
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Frank F
Fat, Old, and Sassy
Joined: 10 Nov 2004
Posts: 4421
Location: Park City, Utah
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| Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2008 1:02 pm Post subject: |
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You can tell this "article" was written from a SAG person. Not that I am making waves here, but AFTRA is negotiating in good faith, and has done so for almost three months. SAG continues to drag it's feet and not negotiate, dreaming of high fees and unruly benefits.
Maybe it is time for AFTRA and SAG to really make a split and for VO folks to watch SAG's inevitable demise. Maybe, maybe not. But I cannot help but think there is a change in the wind for how the VO community works with and is compensated by clients. Good or bad? Who is to say? Only time will tell.
As SAG rocks the boat even more violently, something will shake out.
Yes, I am an AFTRA member. I also work on both sides of the fence regarding the current negotiations; as a producer and an artist. So what do I know?
Toodles
F2
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Be thankful for the bad things in life. They opened your eyes to the good things you weren't paying attention to before. email: thevoice@usa.com |
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melissa eX
MMD
Joined: 20 Oct 2007
Posts: 2794
Location: Lower Manhattan, New Amsterdam, the original NYC
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| Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2008 5:13 pm Post subject: |
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Here's something from the SAGwatch blog on this. Long, but you may want to read it before you get your shorts into a knot.
| Quote: | Archive for the Interactive Category
Negotiations Watch: Interactive - What Did We Expect? - Updated and corrected
August 31, 2008 by Editor.
SAG Interactive negotiating committee chair Michael Bell is out with an e-mail alert not officially sanctioned by the union, but making the rounds nonetheless, in which he says “It has come to the attention of the S.A.G. Interactive Committee, that AFTRA is about to negotiate the Interactive contract without the participation of S.A.G.”
Well, for the moment let’s forget that Bell apparently doesn’t realize there are two interactive contracts, not one. Interactive is one of the areas jointly bargained (at least recently) under the terms of the Phase 1 to Merger Agreement that AFTRA “suspended” earlier this year after SAG’s raiding of AFTRA shows.
But perhaps Bell has also forgotten that AFTRA generally tries to negotiate raises for its members, rather than leaving contracts open indefinitely. This one expires in December.
AFTRA hasn’t actually announced that it’s moving ahead on interactive, but is expected some time right after Labor Day to announce its plans for the process AFTRA calls W&W, which is known as W&WC in SAG. That’s the process by which member input is sought to formulate bargaining proposals, and is first step in negotiating a new contract.
Bell is visibly upset that he and his SAG committee are being left out of the AFTRA process. With Membership First and the SAG bureaucracy tripping all over itself trying to figure out what to do about the stalled TV-Theatrical contract and the almost three years overdue Commercials Contract, SAG has made no visible moves to start its own W&WC on the much smaller Interactive contract.
In his message, Bell asks that members demand that AFTRA bargain the new Interactive deal jointly with SAG. Echoing the rhetoric used in the run up to the raids that led to the breakdown of Phase 1, Bell also blames AFTRA for the terms of the expired Interactive deal, saying AFTRA members of the joint bargaining committee didn’t support SAG’s demands for residuals for interactive games - but ignoring the fact that SAG’s committee was divided on the question, and that, three years ago, the only members in favor of holding out for some form of residual payment were from SAG Hollywood.
AFTRA and SAG seem to be moving towards joint bargaining on the Commercials Contract, so it’s possible that a similar joint negotiation could be held on Interactive, however, Bell’s relations with AFTRA are on the same general level as those of the Allens and the rest of the Membership First leadership, so putting this part of Humpty Dumpty back together again isn’t assured, and won’t be easy.
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Correction from a reader:
Just for the record…
Interactive has never been a Phase One agreement. The whole concept of interactive gaming came along some 15 or 20 years after Phase One had been adopted, and was never moved into the Phase One barrel. The contract was originally an AFTRA contract, that was later promulgated by SAG. Until 3 years ago, the contract was negotiated by AFTRA staff with the two biggest producers. Progress was monitored by members, but members were not “at the table.” Those producers happened to be located in San Francisco. SAG then adopted whatever terms AFTRA negotiated. Three years ago was the first face to face negotiation with members directly involved. At the end of the negotiation, the AFTRA committee voted up the contract, and sent it to the National Board to begin the ratification process. SAG drug its heels and stamped and kicked and held its breath, but eventually approved the same contract. That contract resulted in a 32% increase in rates.
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UPDATE: from the AFTRA website
The AFTRA Administrative Committee voted to approve the deal at its June 16 (2005) meeting. Despite the fact that negotiations were held jointly and that both the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and AFTRA Negotiating Committees unanimously recommended the final package, the same tentative agreement that the AFTRA Administrative Committee accepted, SAG’s National Executive Committee failed to ratify. The Interactive Media Agreements do not fall under the unions’ Phase One to Merger structure. |
And, does anyone else find the timing of this e-mail or its release interesting? Release it online mid-holiday weekend so by the time AFTRA or anyone else can respond it's already made the rounds and riled people up.
To borrow from Todd - i'm just sayin'
m |
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Frank F
Fat, Old, and Sassy
Joined: 10 Nov 2004
Posts: 4421
Location: Park City, Utah
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| Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2008 5:59 pm Post subject: |
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Thank you - and well put Melissa.
Isn't that what I just said?
Toodles
F2
_________________
Be thankful for the bad things in life. They opened your eyes to the good things you weren't paying attention to before. email: thevoice@usa.com |
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melissa eX
MMD
Joined: 20 Oct 2007
Posts: 2794
Location: Lower Manhattan, New Amsterdam, the original NYC
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| Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2008 7:11 pm Post subject: |
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| yep |
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ChrisMezzolesta
Club 300
Joined: 27 Nov 2007
Posts: 367
Location: Houston, TX
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| Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2008 9:08 pm Post subject: |
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What little respect I had for unions was lost during the 2000 strike, when SAG in LA sent members to pose as handicapped people to slow down the lines at McDonalds since they were supposedly doing spots outside contract during the strike, and called it the "gimp patrol". As the son of a handicapped person who has suffered with badly-debilitating MS for 30 years, this sent me thru the roof and has made me question the professionalism of these people and whether they are any better people than the archetypal "union goons" of old. My complaint email to SAG was answered with canned "In Solidarity..." crap.
I therefore ignore anything SAG related, and only deal with AFTRA at a minimum when necessary.
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Chris Mezzolesta, Voice Talent
800.356.5519 www.voiceatile.com |
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SomeAudioGuy
Contributor III
Joined: 08 Apr 2008
Posts: 75
Location: LA
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| Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2008 10:44 pm Post subject: |
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It's just further proof to me that we've LONG out lived the need for two guilds competing over the same space. Younger guys like me, who couldn't care less about past grievances, are getting more and more vocal about a merger.
I've had the pleasure of directing Edoardo Ballerini, so it made me very happy to read his interview over at Voices.com:
http://blogs.voices.com/voxdaily/2008/08/will_sag_and_aftra_merge.html
Obviously wont happen right away, but if we start laying the groundwork now...
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Hey! Whaddaya hear?
http://someaudioguy.blogspot.com |
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melissa eX
MMD
Joined: 20 Oct 2007
Posts: 2794
Location: Lower Manhattan, New Amsterdam, the original NYC
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| Posted: Sun Aug 31, 2008 11:56 pm Post subject: |
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Wouldn't be in such a mess had SAG not voted down the merger plan a few years ago by the tiniest of margins.
i'm just sayin' |
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SomeAudioGuy
Contributor III
Joined: 08 Apr 2008
Posts: 75
Location: LA
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| Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2008 1:16 am Post subject: |
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Now see Melissa, THAT'S exactly what I'm talking about. LOL!
We gotta move on people...
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Hey! Whaddaya hear?
http://someaudioguy.blogspot.com |
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melissa eX
MMD
Joined: 20 Oct 2007
Posts: 2794
Location: Lower Manhattan, New Amsterdam, the original NYC
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| Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2008 5:38 pm Post subject: |
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AFTRA's response to the Bell e-mail was just sent out.
It's here |
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bobsouer
Frequent Flyer
Joined: 15 Jul 2006
Posts: 9883
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
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| Posted: Mon Sep 01, 2008 5:59 pm Post subject: |
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Melissa,
Thank you for passing that along.
_________________
Be well,
Bob Souer (just think of lemons)
The second nicest guy in voiceover.
+1-724-613-2749
Source Connect, phone patch, pony express |
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Yoda117
M&M
Joined: 20 Dec 2006
Posts: 2362
Location: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
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