2-15-08
SAG Steps Back to Make Deal with AFTRA
There will be no SAG referendum on ending the union’s Phase 1 relationship with AFTRA. At least not now. The SAG national board, in emergency session this past weekend, rescinded the vote that they had taken in January to ask members if they wanted to continue negotiating certain contracts jointly with AFTRA.
In addition, the SAG board also rescinded the bloc voting provision, which would have forced all SAG members of all Phase 1 negotiating teams to vote with one voice.
Which negotiating teams will be under the Phase 1 agreement, though, is up in the air. SAG’s decision to end the Phase 1 referendum came with the proviso that AFTRA agree to negotiate jointly with SAG all of their agreements involving actors under Phase 1. That means that basic cable—which has historically been negotiated separately—would be negotiated with SAG from now on.
SAG has long accused AFTRA of undercutting on basic cable by making individual, rather than industry-wide, deals with producers, and offering lower starting terms and more free reruns, or exhibition days. AFTRA has countered that individual negotiations are necessary to help smaller producers get started and help shows find their legs. They also contend that their basic cable shows pay as much as, if not more than, SAG shows in the long run.
AFTRA president Roberta Reardon and executive director Kim Roberts Hedgpeth have held firm that they would only negotiate with SAG if Phase 1 was implemented as it has been since 1981. That means without the inclusion of basic cable.
“The universe of cable entertainment is vastly different than the universe of prime time network television,” Reardon said in an interview last October. “SAG has a one-size fits all approach to cable.”
Yet, in a letter sent by Hedgpeth to SAG executive director Doug Allen on Feb. 8, AFTRA’s position on basic cable seems to have softened.
The main conditions of the letter, which was a follow-up to informal talks held earlier in the week, were that SAG rescind bloc voting and stop the referendum, which the guild did the next day. The letter also affirms that Phase 1, as it was originally written, includes basic cable, as well as non-broadcast industrial, Primetime TV/Theatrical, TV and radio commercials and public television.
“AFTRA understands that each of the aforementioned areas would be included within the terms of Phase 1 and we would operate on that basis,” the letter states.
That understanding made it into the resolution passed by SAG the next day, which read it part: “Discussions between the Guild and AFTRA have resulted in assurances that AFTRA would agree to continue Phase 1 with certain modifications, including the immediate implementation of Phase 1 with respect to basic cable contracts on a going-forward basis.” The resolution also states that AFTRA has agreed to discuss including Network Code—which covers primarily daytime TV—in Phase 1.
AFTRA’s president Reardon confirmed that her union was willing to negotiate basic cable with SAG, but she pointed out that there are legal issues, since both unions already have separate contracts with cable networks.
“Basic cable has always been in Phase 1,” said Reardon. “We’ve just never done it because there’s not an industry-wide group to bargain with.” How the unions might bargain together when there’s still no industry-wide group is still to be decided. But, said Reardon, “We’ve always said if there’s a way to do basic cable together, let’s figure out how to do it.”
SAG insiders say that their hand was forced by AFTRA’s announcement after their national board meeting on Feb. 2 that they could start independent negotiations with primetime TV producers as early as March. Many on the SAG board were worried that AFTRA, negotiating separately, might agree to a primetime television contract that was not amenable to SAG.
AFTRA also last week was granted a charter by the AFL-CIO, allowing it to stand alone outside of the Four A’s performers unions. SAG opposed AFTRA’s resignation from the Four A’s.