Education, AFTRA-Style
Just hours ahead of the Membership First/Hollywood “solidarity” rally, AFTRA is out with an e-mail to members countering the Rosenberg anti-Exhibit A message. Taking direct aim at the Membership First claim that AFTRA’s negotiating team lacked credits, Roberta
Reardon, AFTRA’s President, writes, “These 31 men and women—working performers whose experience in the industry include credits as cast members and guest stars on past and present series such as “24,†Beverly Hills 90210,†“Brothers and Sisters,†“CSI,†“Eli Stone,†“ER,†“JAG,†“Judging Amy,†“Law & Order,†“Lipstick Jungle,†“Without a Trace,†and countless others—understood and met the challenge of pushing forward performers’ priorities at a time of difficult transition and turmoil in our industry. By placing members’ needs over institutional politics, they displayed both good sense and great courage.
It would obviously have been easier for them to have given up in the face of a powerful adversary and gracefully backed away from negotiations without reaching a conclusion. The more difficult choice was to push forward and negotiate a strong contract that contained real improvements and no give-backs—knowing all the while that no matter how good the resulting agreement, political interests would drive some to vilify their work. In the end, your committee persevered and did the right thing, achieving a solid contract that will sustain and enhance the community of professional performers in nearly every category over the next three years.”
Reardon calls the tentative Exhibit A deal an example of AFTRA’s “businesslike” approach to bargaining. Collective bargaining, like politics, she notes, is an exercise in the art of the possible.
