The current collection of SAG Strike News ( read more here )
Below is the L80 Homepage on July 26th, 2008 regarding the SAG Strike subject
NEXT IA
CONTRACT
TALKS
take a breather (
read
more here )
Thursday,
4:44 pm ~ July 24, 2008
Neither side is likely to take decisive action to break the stalemate
before the elections, said entertainment attorney Jonathan Handel,
a former co-counsel for the Writers Guild of America with ties to
labor and management.
"There's not a chance there will be a deal before September
18,"
he said. "And what happens then depends on the results of the
[ SAG ] election."
Thursday, 4:44 pm ~ July 24, 2008
SAG Election challenge arises
( read
more here )
SAG's MembershipFirst leaders may finish last ( read more here )
The Peter Coyote Open Letter to Lead Actors ( read it here )
After talks between SAG and producers
broke off Thursday around 7:30 p.m. PT (July 10th), the AMPTP issued the following
statement:
"Today's meeting demonstrated that SAG's Membership First
contingent unreasonably expects to obtain more in these negotiations
than directors, writers and other actors obtained during their
negotiations. AMPTP has already achieved four major labor agreements
this year with the DGA, WGA, AFTRA Network Code, and AFTRA Prime-Time.
"Our final offer to SAG members includes more than $250 million in
additional compensation, important new-media rights and protection for
pension and health benefits. The refusal of SAG's Hollywood leadership
to accept this offer is the latest in a series of actions by SAG leaders
that, in our opinion, puts labor peace at risk. SAG's Hollywood leaders
have already pursued a time-consuming, divisive, costly, and
unsuccessful anti-AFTRA campaign. Any further delay in reaching a
reasonable and comprehensive agreement does a disservice to the
thousands of working people of our industry who are already being
seriously harmed by the ever worsening de facto strike.
"We call upon SAG's Hollywood leaders to put the AMPTP's final
offer to SAG members for ratification. The last thing we need is a long,
hot summer of labor strife that puts even more pressure on a badly
struggling economy and deprives audiences of the entertainment they
clearly desire in such difficult times."
( read more here )
Peeling back the cover on the two actors unions, listen to the Leaders of the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists as they debated on a radio interview July 9th over whether AFTRA's agreement on a contract with the studios earlier this week improved actors' rights and financial position. ( listen here )
SAG has granted waivers that would allow
AFTRA Contract
Ratified
more than 500 independently produced films
( read
more here )
to continue or proceed. A dozen plus tv shows
remain in production and some pilots. AFTRA
is now free to cut into SAG jurisdiction by signing
new TV shows shot on digital to its deal.
"If you're a
below-the-line worker, your blood is probably running cold because
they're the ones that took the biggest hit from the writers
strike," said Jack Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles
Economic Development Corp.
Relief groups like the Motion Picture & Television Fund are gearing
up to help more in need and say the number of calls for assistance have
already doubled.
So far, the MPTF estimates that it has distributed close to $1 million
in financial assistance to more than 2,000 families since November, when
the WGA strike started.
"If an agreement can't be reached, MPTF will be there to relieve
some of the financial duress on industry workers affected by a stop in
production, as well as those still recovering form the writers
strike," president David Tillman said. "We would expect the
need this time to be higher because many industry workers have depleted
their savings and now have no financial cushion on which to fall
back."
Fred Willard Gets Real
"The man in charge of Screen Actors' Guild, Alan Rosenberg, is a little bit jealous of the Writers' Guild guy who was on the front page of the Hollywood Reporter and Variety and got all the publicity for stopping show business when the writers went on strike. Rosenberg may have thought, 'Damn it. What's left for me?' So now SAG is just mad at everything. All I know is you never make back the money from a strike. Writers who used to get $800,000 for a script are now getting $200,000. They're cutting back. You just can't win. It's like trying to outsmart a used car dealer. You can't do it. "