ALAN ROSENBERG'S STRIKE
It’s finally settling in… the possible SAG strike is Iraq all over again…
The corporatized industry has been attacked by the economy and Al MoPTP is looking to take advantage. Alan Rosenberg is President. He knows that his Nation of SAG needs to do something to show that it is still strong. The union has been under attack from the outside – AFTRA – for a few years and the internal forces splitting the union have become divisive to the point of a near civil war.
Rosenberg tried to get The Allies to support his cause, but one by one, they abandoned SAG in favor of their own interests and beliefs in what is reasonable. So if he goes to war, he has no choice but to go alone.
He tries to use the potential of a SAG strike as leverage to force AMPTP to give up their contracts of mass destruction, but they just keep thumbing their noses at him, empowered by both the other non-actors unions that are happy to be back to work and have contracts keeping them from joining a strike and by the AMPTP deal with AFTRA, which continues to own a larger part of the network turf that is at the heart of this fight.
A loud and angry part of his Democrat(ic) constituency is screaming that “going to war” would be a horrible choice, but they know, as does he, that a strike vote is likely to authorize his war. Checkmate.
Now the question is, will the man be pushed far enough into a corner that he will actually pull the nuclear trigger?
No one wants to be the person who lost the war. WGA didn't want to "lose the internet like it lost DVD." And Alan Rosenberg surely doesn't want to be the guy who let AFTRA eat SAG and to decimate the residual system because people start getting paid not on the principle of how large the group viewing the work it, but how the work is delivered.
And make no mistake. Once precedent is set, it doesn't move far. Not in three years. Not in thirty years. Just ask anyone who has been eating *** while the studios and major stars got FAT on DVD while the unions continued to get paid like DVD was an experiment.
Still, I have no sympathy for the idiocy in the NY meeting of the other night. This is not an issue of poor negotiation. What some people fail to recognize – and I think, many of the early “no strike” stars did see – is that this negotiation was never a negotiation, but a statement of the state of the union by AMPTP.
WGA didn’t get anything for its troubles. All they really did was to give a chance to the AMPTP companies to dump a lot of financially unattractive deals. And to emasculate SAG completely. The strike was, I am afraid, profitable for the studios. Even if one or two series lost the momentum that might have taken them to a third or fourth season that will now never happen… it all was fine for the studios and networks.
DGA didn’t care.
AFTRA made the final cut to the hamstrings of SAG.
Thing is, SAG needs very different things than WGA or DGA. And the whole simplification of the WGA strike – and thus any future strikes – to “New Media” has been brutal for SAG. Because it’s not New Media that’s so dangerous for the union and its members… it’s the disappearance of Old Media, specifically reruns. It’s not about not getting paid enough for the internet reruns… it is the destruction of the financial infrastructure of the middle class of actors as established over decades.
To be really clear… Paid once for shooting the show and the first network airing… paid a second time, in full, for the first network rerun… paid a half time for a second network rerun. So while there were no guarantees, a guest spot on a network hit usually meant 2.5 times your first payment before residuals from ancillary plays (or DVD sales) kicked in.
If the AMPTP wanted to double the minimum for the production of shows for Primetime and the rest, then the online rerun window would still lead to a form of rollback for many actors… but it would at least guarantee a working wage that would keep acting viable for a lot more actors. It wouldn’t keep NBC from getting down to 10, 9, 8, 7 or fewer scripted hours of drama/comedy a week.
But if you did 4 “major role” guest spots on network hour-long series a year and were paid $6,700 each for them (just above minimum… and sitcom minimum is about 60% of that), you could reasonably expect to make $67,000 a year ($40,200 for 4 sitcom appearances).
If reruns all end up in that 2.5 week window, already agreed to by AFTRA, you’re looking at $26,800 (about $16,100 for sitcoms). And even if the “reruns” run online for a year, you’re looking at a couple thousand more, if that, than these minimums.
You can still qualify for SAG Health Plan II if you earn about $14,000… but only after you have qualified for SAG Plan I for at least 10 years. Otherwise, Plan I requires you to earn at least $28,000 a year.
So, four “major role” spots on an hour-long and you still may not make the Health Plan.
Non-major roles pay less than half of this.
Of course, not every situation will be this Machiavellian. Many shows will still have reruns on network. But many others will not. But the comfort zone of what a minimal expectation is seeks to get a lot more pro-studio for the comfort of actors.
So what is the good answer?
I don’t have one. Alan Rosenberg has no direction to go that works. If they settle on a deal close to the one on the table for the last 5 months, he is a failure. If he leads the union to a strike, the gains will be minimal… the union could even be broken. If he keeps treading water, he is seen as a loud mouth who can’t deliver anything… and the union could easily be taken over by AFTRA leadership, who will sell the actors out for power.
There is no way to get AMPTP to move off of their position by much. None. That hope ended when WGA struck in November of last year, assuring that there would be no combined summer strike. DGA and AFTRA were easy pickings for AMPTP.
What would I suggest?
Focus on a few small improvements over what’s on the table… sell them to the public… have a SAG vote of confidence on those issues… squeeze the tiny concessions out of AMPTP… pretend you didn’t get reamed, like WGA.
A strike? Over by the Super Bowl, Rosenberg out, AFTRA merged… and AMPTP still wins.
AMPTP won before the fight really started. It was essentially over when WGA signed. Get over it. Don’t lie to yourself about 2011. Same problems. Unless the unions commit to one another, nothing will change. The only difference is that we will have a slightly clearer picture of the delivery systems of the future.
Being right? Not really on the table anymore.
Read the complete post at http://www.mcnblogs.com/thehotblog/archives/2008/12/short_ends_pt_3.html