SAGWatch – Observing the Screen Actors Guild and AFTRA

As expected, approval was overwhelming. The memberships of SAG and AFTRA voted 93.84% in favor of the new agreements (there’s one each for SAG and AFTRA). Approximately 132,000 members of the unions received ballots, of which 28 percent returned them.

Here’s the official announcement on the SAG website. Here’s the AFTRA version.

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Los Angeles (May 21, 2009) —In nationwide voting completed today, members of the Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists have overwhelmingly approved new three-year successor agreements to the 2006 Screen Actors Guild Television Commercials Contract and the2006 AFTRA Television and Radio Commercials Contracts .

The memberships of AFTRA and SAG voted 93.84% percent in favor of the new agreements. Approximately 132,000 members of the unions received ballots, of which 28% percent returned them. The final vote was certified today by Integrity Voting Systems, an impartial election service based in Everett, Washington.

The new agreements cover performers working in commercials made for and reused on television, radio, the Internet, and new media. The unions estimate that the three-year increase, which is retroactively effective to April 1, will generate more than $108 million in member earnings, including approximately $24 million in increased contributions to the SAG Pension & Health and AFTRA Health & Retirement plans. The total combined value of the AFTRA and SAG contracts is projected at more than $3 billion over the three-year term of the agreement for working performers, including actors, singers, dancers, choreographers, stunt persons, and extras.

The unions also successfully established a first-ever payment structure in commercials for the Internet and new media. The unions affirmed their jurisdiction over commercial work made for the Internet in 2000, and new media formats in 2006. The new payment structure goes into effect in the third year of the contract.

Additionally, the new contracts contain an agreement outlining terms for a pilot study to test the Gross Rating Points (GRP) model of restructuring compensation to principle performers, as proposed by Booz & Co. The two-year pilot study will be conducted by a jointly retained consultant engaged by the unions and the industry. The study is expected to be paid for by grants from Screen Actors Guild-Industry Advancement and Cooperative Fund (IACF) and the AFTRA-Industry Cooperative Fund (AICF).

“I am pleased that SAG and AFTRA were able to work together to reach an agreement that will benefit actors who work in the advertising industry,” said SAG National President Alan Rosenberg.

Praising the successful ratification, AFTRA National President Roberta Reardon observed, “I am pleased that our members have ratified these new television and radio commercials contracts. These new agreements provide significant increases in payments to working performers now—a major achievement in a severely depressed global economy—and the contracts will guarantee our continued participation in this important area of work as it evolves in response to consumer tastes and trends affected by the changing landscape of digital technology.”

“We have enormous power when we negotiate jointly and it put us in a great position from day one,” added Sue-Anne Morrow, Screen Actors Guild’s national chair of the SAG-AFTRA Joint Commercials Negotiating Committee. “Achieving a minimum for ads made for the Internet and new media was a huge win. It was time to insist that actors be paid fairly for their exposure in these developing areas and members clearly approved through their overwhelming votes to ratify.”

The pact with the Association of National Advertisers and the American Association of Advertising Agencies goes into effect retroactively to April 1, 2009, and will remain in force until March 31, 2012.

SAG and AFTRA members voted on the tentative agreement that had been reached with the advertising industry on March 31 and overwhelmingly recommended by the SAG-AFTRA Joint Board in a meeting on April 18. Ballots were mailed April 30 to all eligible members in good standing of either union.

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Here’s BlogStage on the ratification. The Wrap.