SAGWatch – Observing the Screen Actors Guild and AFTRA

Even if it weren’t – to say the least – irregular, the Hollywood Board’s action tonight installing Membership First’s David Joliffe to fill out the National Board term of Justine Bateman, who resigned, is a double-barrelled shot at the rest of the union. The Hollywood Board passed over Marcia Wallace, who is the alternate who had the next highest number of votes (42.31%)  in the last election and reached down to Joliffe, who was dumped out of both his National and Hollywood board seats when Hollywood members overwhelmingly rejected his candidacy, with only 33.15% voting for him.

Why the unusual move? The Hollywood Board is still under the control of Membership First. Wallace is a member of Unite for Strength. Joliffe, who finished not just out of the money in the election but 54th, a full 21 positions behind the last selected alternate, is a stalwart of Membership First.

Joliffe is the former chair of the TV-Theatrical negotiating committee, the committee that was pushed aside in order to achieve a breakthrough on the TV-Theatrical agreement. He also is one of those who has been involved in incidents of disparagement of AFTRA.

Angry UFS and RBD members have called the move “outside the rules” and “shady.” However, after rereading the SAG Constitution, we can’t find any provision that explicitly prohibits it. Then again, maybe we missed it.