Hollywood CEO's letter to SAG
DeadlineHollywood, 11.30.08
The AMPTP alerted me to this "Open Letter to the Entertainment Industry" in the form of an ad addressing the current situation with SAG and set to run in the Los Angeles Times tomorrow... Read the letter.
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Also at Deadline Hollywood -
Details Of AMPTP-IATSE Tentative Deal
12.1.08 - AMPTP Finally Responds To WGA Claim That Big Media Reneging On New Media Residuals
12.1.08 - SAG's response to Hollywood CEO's
12.1.08 - Fact Checking The AMPTP (12/01/2008) - thanks TheVault!
posted by thereel @ 9:32 AM
3 Comments:
Everyone should pay close attention to the neighboring thread at DeadlineHollywoodDaily http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/details-of-amptp-iatse-tentative-deal/
or more particularly the comments to that post.
The stuff the AMPTP keeps saying about IATSE (the union that represents crews including CI's) and the allegedly 'good' new deal the AMPTP is making with it is apparently news to a lot of rank & file crew members.
The commenters there referring to themselves as crew members sound like they're not happy with the terms of the IATSE deal as they've seen them. A 35 cent an hour raise each year for the next three years sounds okay until you realize that crew members have to work 25% longer to qualify for their health insurance, that the new media residual contribution (to IA members it goes to their pension & health funds and not to them individually as residual checks) may have a 26 *week* window for which they don't get a penny (ie you watch an ep on Hulu or you download it from iTunes/Unboxed and for 26 weeks all the CI crew members get zero in payment for it), and that when it comes to negotiating jobs in new media crew members will largely be on their own to negotiate their up front salaries which means most of them will be working for scale or the union minimum. Even though right now some of the crew members if they work in old media can get paid fairly for their experience and their expertise
Interesting how the crew members finally starting to see the actors' point now that they're realizing that they're getting a bad deal too (a very bad deal if you ask me, potentially the worst of all the deals offered or made).
As for that AMPTP letter it says little new...it rehashes points the AMPTP has put out in its PR for months and neglects discussing the $60 million TV actors are still owed by the companies in force majeure payments that are their right under SAG's 2005 contract with the AMPTP and were earned when the TV actors hung around during the WGA strike and did not look for other work, the letter does not address the fact that both the WGAE and WGAW writers are in arbitrations trying to collect new media residuals earned since February 13, 2008 under the 'groundbreaking' 2008 Minimum Basic Agreement deal the WGA has with the AMPTP companies (and which the AMPTP so far does not appear to be honoring) and now conveniently not specifically discussing terms in IATSE's proposed deal that are more rollbacks than advances.
The Vault
Um...
May I...??
As a humble fan, I may not feel so excited, watching the threatening clouds of strike in the horizon, imagining that should they start pouring, it'll be mostly acid rain over our dear, most respected actors.....
On the other hand, reading your ad -if anything- motivates any humble fan, to do a little basic research, and come up with some basic facts, such as:
-Your insist on elimination of "force majeure protections" -protecting the actors financially, when production stops as the result of an “act of God”, like a natural disaster or a strike by another union, such as the WGA strike earlier this year; after it was established more than 70 years ago.
-Your insist on unlimited use of non-union actors in new media productions, as well as limiting the residual payments to productions which cost more than $25000/min. Wouldn't you feel really abused, if you were paied only $22.77 each time one of your films or tv series -a CI epi, for instance- was watched on the internet, Ipods, mobile phones, etc; when you should've been paied over $600 -as much as a writer or a director is being paied...??
-Your insist on sticking to the 22 year old "home video residual formula", by which, all the actors on a given cast share 1% of the revenue generated through DVD sales, refusing to at least make pension and health contributions on DVD residuals - the same goes for the over-20-years-old basic cable residual formula.
-You have already agreed to set minimum payments for writers of made-for-new media programs, but refuses to do so for actors.
Rationally, that should be part of the "same deal"you claim to be ready to have with SAG, as you've already had with WGA.
-And to top it off, you are insisting on a "3-year pact"...
Correct me if I'm wrong, please:
you seem to be actually "COUNTING" on this strike vote...!!
Of course, SAG strike, will give you the necessary excuse, to embrace non-union and AFTRA actors.
Even the actors with double SAG-AFTRA membership are legally obligated to work under their AFTRA contract, in case of a SAG strike -and that's supposed to give you the necessary leverage -either SAG will go on a strike; which they eventually will be forced to call off; or they will be forced on the negotiation table- it's a win-lose situation....
You probably even count on the fact, that a strike vote needs only the aproval of 75% of the membership "voters", and not 75% of SAG's actual 120000 "members".
Some hell of a scenario, I'd have to admit...!!
May God have mercy on our favorite actors, and all people;
Saghy
As a fan only, I would support a strike like I did the writers strike but not at this time-
There will be no sympathy for any professions striking now when they have a job and so many people don't have jobs-
It's just a bad time to demand anything-
Regi.
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