Roll Cameras! Screen Actors Guild Ratifies Contract

Lisa Derrick Wednesday June 10, 2009 8:12 am

Members of the Screen Actors Guild have ratified their television and feature films contract in a 78 to 22 per cent vote, avoiding a strike which would have further devastated the Los Angeles economy–oh heck California’s and the United States’, since entertainment is one of our largest exports.

Production provides tens of thousands of jobs–on sets and on studio lots and has a massive trickle down effect everywhere from agencies and PR firms to car dealerships, restaurants, coffee houses, bookstores, boutiques, service and support personnel, charities and schools–both public and private–which rely on donations from parents to help offset budget cuts.

Production had slowed to trickle over the past two years because of the writers’ strike and the potential of a SAG strike. SAG’s sister union AFTRA signed their deal year ago, so much of scripted television work went to that union, leaving SAG members unemployed out of the studio’s fear that the union’s strike would halt TV production. However with the upswing in reality programming, which doesn’t require union actors (or union writers and crews for that matter), there were fewer AFTRA jobs, so overall things were pretty sucky and tight.

Regarding the contract vote, Variety reports

Turnout among the 110,000 eligible members was a higher-than-normal 35%

which is still pretty sad, considering the amount of rancor over the contract during the past year and that this two-year contract will affect all members. On the other hand, only 5% of SAG’s 110,000 members earn enough from work and residuals ($9,600 per year) to qualify for the guild’s health insurance plan.

Variety gives the details of the new contract, the terms of which are essentially the same as those offered at the beginning of neogatiations:

SAG’s deal includes a 3.5% annual hike in minimums — a 3% salary hike in the first year plus a 0.5% gain in pension and health contributions in the first year and a 3.5% salary increase in the second; it also spells out the pay structure for shows streamed on and made for the Internet. That’s essentially the same deal the companies offered a year ago but which was spurned by hardliners who advocated holding out for richer terms for new-media compensation and guaranteed jurisidiction on new-media projects.

Who knows if the contract resolution will stem the tide of reality shows…

ratfood | Wednesday June 10, 2009 07:36 pm 1

Good news. Lord knows we need the occasional distraction from reality.

tbsa | Wednesday June 10, 2009 08:00 pm 2

I don’t watch alot of teevee but, the reality thing has gotten pathetic.

thurbers | Wednesday June 10, 2009 09:10 pm 3

Just a different view of the production trickle here.

Production slowed because the studios had a backlog of product movie wise (they had ramped up movie production in the year prior to the writers strike, and that only slowed them down slightly before the end date of the SAG contract.) It never stopped television wise (except during the actual writers strike.) The same slow down occurred in 2001, as they had done the same thing because of a possible SAG strike then. When they would have begun to pick up production again the financial crisis had occurred and suddenly even Spielberg had to fight for financing. No one at SAG was stopping anyone from filming anything and this slow down should not be laid at the union’s feet. This was about the producers. And unfortunately all signs are that the pipeline wasn’t actually shut once they were out of backlog.

The increase in AFTRA television came mostly in the spring pilots, most of the television shows on the networks all this year were SAG, anything that had been SAG continued to be SAG. They didn’t stop working because of the SAG contract negotiations.

Another aspect of California’s production slow down is the increase in tax credits for other places. This was a big year for television production here in NY, and we’ve had a fair number of movies. Television series were produced in NY, NC, NM, and OR this year. Decisions of where to shoot are once again made by the Producers.

My point is that despite the way it is consistently portrayed, the production slow down is only minorly about the union. It is about the AMPTP.