Popular vote Shows New IATSE Contract Is Not So Popular

by David Robb

October 17, 2018 9:44am

EXCLUSIVE: Ratification of IATSE’s new film and TV contract was approved last week in a landslide under the union’s electoral college-style voting system, but it was a real squeaker in terms of the popular vote – the closest in the union’s history. And while the popular vote carries no weight under the union’s rules, the closeness of the vote might offer some consolation to opponents of the pact, while serving notice to management’s AMPTP that the unpopularity of the pact could foreshadow tougher sledding ahead when the parties return to the bargaining table in three years.

Under the IA’s rules, each of the 13 West Coast studios locals covered by the contract is allotted as many winner-take-all votes as the number of delegates they had at the union’s last convention, based on the size of their memberships. Altogether, the 13 locals cast 385 votes, with 193 needed either to ratify or reject the contract. The final vote was 312 votes in favor to 73 against, with Editors Guild Local 700 casting all 73 “no” votes.

Based on those figures, the pact was approved by a wide margin: 81% to 19%. But the popular vote was much closer – somewhere in the neighborhood of 53% in favor to 47% against and perhaps even closer, depending on the votes of two locals that so far have declined to say how large their majority “yes” votes were.

The lopsided nature of the delegate-vote count compared to the narrowness of the popular vote is due to the fact that 12 of the 13 locals voted to ratify the contract, while the Editors Guild voted overwhelmingly against it, and at a far higher turnout rate than any of the others.

Under the IA’s rules, a local is bound by the terms of a contract its members whole-heartedly rejected as long as a majority vote of the other locals is for ratification. But this wasn’t always the case. Prior to 1975, ratification by a majority of every local’s membership was required before a local agreement could take effect. But in 1975, IATSE revised its constitution and bylaws so that all local agreements would become effective upon an aggregate majority vote of the membership of all the locals. This led to a bitter legal battle in 1976 when Sound Local 695 — finding itself in the same situation the Editors Guild is in now — decided to put up a fight, filing a lawsuit against IATSE and the ANPTP that alleged breach of fair representation. The Sound Local lost its suit, and the IA put it into trusteeship.

The exact vote tally for the new contract still is unknown, as only 10 of the 13 locals have released their actual vote totals. The known votes of those 10 reporting locals left the “yes” votes trailing the “no” votes by more than 1,000 votes — 5,846 to 6,883. One of the three holdout locals, Prop Local 44 – the IA’s third-largest local – has disclosed that 32% of its roughly 5,700 members cast ballots and that 79% of those votes were in favor of the contract, with 21% opposed. Based on that data, about 1,440 of its members voted for the pact, while about 380 voted against. And that put the popular vote for ratification over the top by a slim margin of just 23 votes – 7,286 “yes” to 7,263 “no,” with the count of two other yes-voting locals still undisclosed.

Here’s a rundown by local, its number of electoral votes, number of ballots sent, turnout, “yes” and “no” votes:

Local 600: 76 votes, 6,925, 36%, 1,756-717
Local 700: 73 votes, 8,107, 71%, 608-5,135
Local 44: 56 votes, 5,700,* 32%, 1,440*-380*
Local 80: 33 votes, 3,500, 29%, 764-257
Local 800: 23 votes, 2,634, 32%, 730-102
Local 871: 21 votes, 2,315, 18%,228-182
Local 695: 19 votes, 1,856, 39%, 568-156
Local 705: 17 votes, 2,334, 32%, 504-236
Local 892: 10 votes, 1,037, 30%, 265-50
Local 729: 9 votes, 903, 42%, 357-26
Local 884: 2 votes, N/A, N/A, 66-22
Subtotal: 7,286-7,263
* Estimate

Make-Up & Hair Stylists Local 706, with 20 votes, has told its members that it will release its vote totals in an upcoming union bulletin, but Set Lighting Local 728, with 26 votes, has not released its totals and has not responded to Deadline’s requests for data.

According to information it provides to the Department of Labor, Local 706 has 2,040 voting members, while Local 728 has 2,609. If their turnout rates were similar to all the other yes-voting locals (35%), and their margins of approval also were in line with the average of the other yes-voting locals (75%), then the two holdout locals would add another 1,200 or so votes to the “yes” column and some 500 or so votes to the “no” column – making the final tally of all the locals somewhere in the neighborhood of 8,500 to 7,700 in favor of ratification. That’s an approval margin of about 800 votes, give or take a few hundred votes, out of more than 16,000 ballots cast.

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Get out the Oil Can we got a Real Squeaker.  No it ain’t my mouse!  

Arl

The Ol’ SAG Watchdog

*Headline photo selected by The Watchdog

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By David Robb
October 16, 2018 4:02pm

Former SAG president Richard Masur will be this year’s recipient of SAG-AFTRA’s President’s Award, which “celebrates a member who has given meritorious service to the union and its membership.” The award will be presented Saturday at the union’s national board meeting.

“It is an honor and privilege for me to recognize Richard’s many contributions with this award,” said SAG-AFTRA president Gabrielle Carteris. “For decades, he has worked to enrich the lives of performers; from volunteering on committees, serving on local and national boards, to ultimately two terms as the president of the Screen Actors Guild. Richard embodies the true meaning of leadership and service.”

In 1989, at a friend’s suggestion, Masur ran and was elected to a SAG board seat, and was elected SAG president in 1995, serving two terms until 1999. Seven years later, he returned to the national board and played a key role in the process that developed the merger agreement between SAG and AFTRA, which merged in 2012.

He began his professional acting career in 1972 at the Long Wharf Theater in New Haven before moving to Broadway the following year in The Changing Room. His career quickly expanded to film and television as a character actor, appearing in more than 60 feature films and TV movies and scores of television episodes. He received an Emmy nomination for The Burning Bed, and an Academy Award nomination for writing and directing the short subject Love Struck.

Masur has served on more than two dozen committees and is currently the national chair of the union’s Government Affairs and Public Policy Committee, leading the union’s legislative efforts. He is also vice chair of the Telemundo Contract Standing Committee, working on behalf of the Spanish-language performer community. He’s also a trustee on the SAG-Producers Pension Plan and the SAG-AFTRA Health Plan.

The President’s Award was introduced at last year’s SAG-AFTRA convention, where it was first presented, posthumously, to Mike Hodge, the late New York Local President.

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Congratulations to Mr. Masur.

Arl

The Ol’ SAG Watchdog

*Headline photo featured in Mr. Robb’s article

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The Following From the SAG/AFTRA Website:

October 15, 2018

SAG-AFTRA has rescinded its Do Not Work order for the Basic Cable TV movie Keys to the City and members are free to work on this production effective immediately.

Should you have any questions, please contact Dan Bowser, Associate National Director Television & New Media Entertainment Contracts, at dan.bowser@sagaftra.org or (323) 549-6466.

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Okay!   You can unlock those frowns and smile!

Arl

The Ol’ SAG Watchdog

*Headline photo selected by the Watchdog

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By David Robb
October 15, 2018 7:10pm

Marsha Hunt, Norman Lloyd, June Lockhart and Barbara Perry will receive the SAG-AFTRA Founders Award for their historic contributions to the union. The special tribute for “meritorious service” to their fellow actors will be presented Saturday at the union’s national board meeting.

Related
SAG-AFTRA Issues Do-Not-Work Order For Telefilm ‘Keys To The City’

“I am so honored to recognize the extraordinary achievements of these courageous actors and leaders,” said SAG-AFTRA president Gabrielle Carteris. “Their pioneering spirit and advocacy for their union and peers in those early years was pivotal and helped to make us who we are today.”

Hunt, who turns 100 on Wednesday, is one of the last survivors of the Hollywood Blacklist. She joined SAG in 1938 and was a SAG board member from March 1945-November 1947 under presidents George Murphy, Robert Montgomery and Ronald Reagan. In the 1950s her name appeared in “Red Channels: The Report of Communist Influence in Radio and Television,” and, like many others at the time, her onscreen career largely came to a halt. She continued to get occasional work in television, and in 1997 participated in Hollywood Remembers the Blacklist – the industry’s 50th anniversary commemoration of that dark era. In 2015, SAG-AFTRA president Ken Howard presented her with the Marsha Hunt for Humanity Award at the seventh annual Kat Kramer’s Films That Change the World event.

Lloyd, who turns 104 next month, joined SAG in 1939 and is Hollywood’s oldest working actor, currently appearing in the TV series Fly. He played the title character in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1942 Saboteur but is perhaps best known for his role of Dr. Daniel Auschlander on the 1980s TV series St. Elsewhere. In 1946, during the Conference of Studio Unions’ ill-fated strike, he was one of six SAG members who gathered signatures from 350 actors, including some of Hollywood’s biggest stars, to successfully petition the guild to allow participants on both sides of the strike to present their views. In 2014, in recognition of his 82 years in show business, the Los Angeles City Council proclaimed his 100th birthday “Norman Lloyd Day.”

Lockhart, best known for her work in the TV series Lassie and Lost in Space, joined AFRA, the forerunner of AFTRA, in 1938, and became a SAG member in 1940. In 1949, she and then-SAG president Ronald Reagan accepted a plaque from the Air Force honoring 32 professional entertainers who died while on tours of service in or out of battle areas in World War II. In 1983 she supported both SAG and AFTRA’s Women’s Committees in their work to bring attention to the Equal Rights Amendment.

Perry became a SAG member in 1934, one month before her 13th birthday. When she joined, she already was a seasoned professional who began her career at the age of four and by the mid-1930s was believed to be the only child performer who had appeared in concerts, stage, opera, radio, screen and television. During World War II, she served her country as an entertainer on hospital tours and performances for our troops.

“This year’s recipients are the personification of the Founders Award’s mission,” said Honors and Tributes Committee chair Jenny O’Hara. “All four are trailblazers in their own right and have been fearless in their fight for their fellow actors.”

Past recipients include Gloria Stuart and Olivia de Havilland, who were both founders and among the longest-tenured members of the union at the time of their commendation.

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The photo says it for all us SAG/AFTRA members!

Arl

The Ol’ SAG Watchdog

*Headline animation selected by the Watchdog

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NBC Promo Writers Ratify New WGA East Contract

by David Robb
October 15, 2018 11:59am

NBC promo writers unanimously have ratified a new three-year WGA East contract. “We are pleased that the company recognized the value of all of the employees in the unit, who remained united throughout the negotiations,” said Lowell Peterson, the guild’s executive director.

The new pact covers members who write and produce broadcast promotional materials for news programming at WNBC and NBC network news, including NBC Nightly News, Meet the Press, News 4 New York and Megyn Kelly Today.

“In an environment that’s so anti-union, we are pleased that NBC Universal signed a contract with the Writers Guild of America East recognizing our value as a union,” the NBC Promo Writers bargaining committee said in a statement.

Highlights from the agreement include 2% pay raises for over-scale staff employees in each year of the contract; bonuses of $2,000 for certain over-scale full-time daily hires; premiums for daily hires that will increase from 19% to 19.5% upon ratification and to 20% in May of 2019, and contributions to the health and pension plans that will be paid in accordance with the guild’s current Minimum Basic Agreement.

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Write On!

Arl

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*Headline photo featured featured in article,

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