Brian Hamilton

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May 20, 2014

Pamela Greenwalt’s Warning to SAG-AFTRA Members

by Brian Hamilton:

MEMBERS: Don’t DARE Download the New Logo from the SAG-AFTRA Website!

Instead of looking for actual misuse and infringement, Pamela Greenwalt, the Assistant National Exective Director, Communications, and the legal department at SAG-AFTRA have decided to take preemptive measures and fire off a terse, impersonal missive to dues paying members who downloaded the brand new logo from the sagaftra.org website. Read the letter. Rather than being phrased in the manner of an inquiry, it assumes bad faith and makes demands.

CLICK IMAGE to ENLARGE

While anyone on the entire planet can go to Google images to find several websites hosting much higher resolution image files of the new logo than the small one offered by SAG-AFTRA, and instantly download it to their computer without filling out a form, reading a batch of legalese, or agreeing to any terms and conditions –then do whatever they please unbeknownst to all — Pamela Greenwalt has chosen to spend her handsomely paid time ($217,804.00 in 2012) chastising members of the union. Simply for possessing an image file of their own union’s logo. Without one iota of evidence of use or misuse. Policing infringement which doesn’t even exist. (Like in that Stallone film where he arrests people for future crimes.) How is this not offensive to members? How is this a wise expenditure of time and money?

Listen, I fully understand how copyright enforcement works. When an incidence of infringement is discovered, it must be swiftly met with an inquiry, warning, or request for immediate removal by the copyright holder. That’s clearly not what has occurred here.

“You represent and warrant that you… are a freelance news reporter…”

Bloggers certainly qualify as freelance news reporters. Nicki Finke of Deadline would agree, as would Matt Drudge and Arianna Huffington. Apparently, Pamela Greenwalt conveniently forgot that I am both the cofounder of this blog, SAG Watchdog in 2003 with Arlin Miller, and the founder and operator of SAGactor.com since 1999. To ignore this fact and assume that I had “downloaded the logo in error” is erroneous and offensive. It also bears mentioning that both of these sites are widely known and frequented by staff members at SAG and AFTRA for many years, as well as journalists from Variety and The Hollywood Reporter.

No member of the union should have received that e-mail.

So, this also raises the question: Are dues paying members of this union not allowed to possess an image of their union’s logo on their own computer!? Not allowed to use it on their own website to display their loyal membership in the union? After all: Who paid for it? I don’t know how much they paid for it, but they paid too much. It’s goddam ugly. Apparently, I’m not the only one who thinks so. Read the comments on this site. Actually, I think the estate of the late, great Freddie Mercury is who should be suing SAG-AFTRA for infringement, n’est-ce pas?

A Systemic Problem That’s Growing Worse

This policy, and the manner in which Pamela Greenwalt has chosen to implement it, are very bad. It’s another symptom of a growing systemic problem at the new union. Members aren’t treated as shareholders, they’re treated like outsiders. I would like to remind every staff member at SAG-AFTRA:

You don’t work for David White. You don’t work for Duncan Crabtree-Ireland. You work for the members, like me, whose dues collectively pay your salary. We are the reasons why you have a job to begin with.

In the former Screen Actors Guild, most staff members fully understood this. Now, while many more of them are quite handsomely compensated, there seems to be a pervasive lack of loyalty to the membership, and strong allegiance to their corporate superiors. It consistently shows in their attitudes and behavior. Too many treat members as if they’re doing them a favor, and I’m sick of it. Several departments need re-training from the top down.

I was a voting National Board member of the former Screen Actors Guild who voted to hire Doug Allen as National Executive Director at the plenary in 2007. He brought Pamela in as the guild’s Executive Director for Communications on February 27, 2007. I served on the Hollywood Board of Directors during the 2006-2007 year, and on several committees in the years before and after.

March 3, 2012

NO Merger!

Brian Hamilton

click to enlarge

February 25, 2012

The War Over Digital is a LIE

Brian Hamilton

The War Over Digital is a LIE

by Brian Hamilton » Sat Feb 25, 2012 11:24 pm

SAG members have been deliberately misled by a campaign of disinformation and a fabricated turf war.

When a labor organization is established by a group of workers, it forms what is correctly called a bargaining unit. The workers’ vote is supervised and protected by federal laws contained in the National Labor Relations Act. The main purpose for the formation of a labor organization is for the protection and advancement of the wages and working conditions of its members. Screen Actors Guild was formed in 1933, by actors who perform in front of a motion picture camera. That simple description defines the craft and the bargaining unit.
Now, many years later, members of Screen Actors Guild are being presented with a dilemma. They’re being told AFTRA is going to take more of SAG’s organized work because “digital has no jurisdiction” and they must merge with them to fix this or it will only get worse!

Screen Actors Guild represents actors who perform in front of the motion picture camera. It matters not whether an actor’s performance is captured and preserved on celluloid, videotape, in a data retrieval system, on a disk, cartridge, etc. The nature of the work being performed has not changed. The bargaining unit is still the same. The war over digital is a big fat lie.

Confused? Let’s put it in a different context: We all know what carpenters do. They build structures and dwellings from various building materials. In the beginning, they used primarily wood and nails. However, years down the line, sheetrock, fiberglass, composite material, innovative fasteners, etc. were introduced. It would be ludicrous to think that another union would then intercede and attempt to subsume the carpenters union’s bargaining unit, organizing the jobs simply because different building materials were now being used. Even worse, imagine forcing those carpenters to pay an exorbitant initiation fee to join the different union, simply to perform the same work they had always done before–now for less wages and benefits. It’s fairly easy to understand: using different building materials does not change the nature of the work being performed. It fits the carpenters’ bargaining unit. If this hypothetical situation were to actually occur, you can bet that the carpenters union would take immediate action to remedy the situation, to protect and preserve the bargaining unit it represents.

For decades, Screen Actors Guild had litigiously defended its bargaining unit. On several occasions, matters were quickly resolved via internal memos between legal departments. Other disputes were heard, and ultimately resolved, by the five member panel of federal judges on the National Labor Relations Board.

When someone is stealing from your business, the solution is not going into business with them.

Why has AFTRA been poaching SAG contracts with impunity in the last few years? It’s simple. Because they’ve been deliberately allowed to. This new merger proposition is simply an AFTRA take-over, facilitated from the inside. The war over digital lie provides David P. White, and his minions, the excuse to do nothing while AFTRA continually raids contracts from SAG (problem) instigating the anticipated outcry from the members (reaction) for a remedy which they’ve already conveniently prepared (solution). Thesis, antithesis, synthesis.

Think about it: AFTRA cuts a deal with producers, negotiating its own contract paying the actors a cut rate. Same job, same actor–different union, less money. How does that benefit actors? So, who do you think is behind this push for merger? It’s pretty easy to figure this one out. As the Italians say, cui bono? (who benefits?) Certainly not the actors. Just follow the money…

PS: In my March 12, 2009 e-mail sent to David P. White, I made it abundantly clear that I was well aware of his plan. He never responded. (click to enlarge)