8-31-07
AFTRA Petitions to Leave Four A's
No, they’re not an a cappela singing group. They’re a band of six unions or guilds that have common interests—namely, performers. The Associated Actors and Artistes of America—which consists of Actors’ Equity Association, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, the American Guild of Musical Artists, the American Guild of Variety Artists, the Guild of Italian American Actors and the Screen Actors Guild—was formed in 1919 during jurisdictional battles involving variety performers and legit stage actors. The AAAA is a member of the umbrella AFL-CIO. None of the individual unions are AFL-CIO members.
Now, one of the Four A members—AFTRA—wants to leave and strike out on its own.
At their national convention this past July, AFTRA members voted 91 percent to petition the AFL-CIO for direct affiliation, and leave the Four A’s with only five members
SAG takes issue with this. In a letter to SAG members, national executive director Doug Allen accused AFTRA of trying to escape Four A protections. “For example,” Allen wrote, “no member of a Four A’s union can work a project struck by another Four A’s union” and members must “resolve jurisdictional disputes under Four A’s procedures and in accordance with Four A’s jurisdictional boundaries.”
In a letter in response to Allen’s, AFTRA president Roberta Reardon, pointed out that “direct affiliation with the AFL-CIO does not change AFTRA members’ constitutional obligations not to perform non-union work or struck work in the jurisdiction of a sister union—nor should the vote…in any way change the obligations of our sister unions to act with corresponding respect toward AFTRA.”
Reardon, in a phone interview the day after the letter went out, clarified that leaving the Four A’s was a matter of taking care of all of AFTRA’s talent, not just actors. The Four A’s “still primarily deals with actors issues” said Reardon. “There’s very little the Four A’s would be able to do for AFTRA broadcasters and AFTRA recording artists.”
Direct affiliation with the AFL-CIO would also give AFTRA the freedom to work with other entertainment unions. AFTRA recently announced an informal partnership with IATSE, the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, which covers film and TV crew members. AFTRA national executive director Kim Roberts Hedgpeth said that details on the arrangement are still being worked out.