Attention LA News, Weather, Traffic, Sports & Anchors - and DJs too

[NYC Street]

Within the next day you or your agent will receive a ballot in the mail for a union election that is of vital importance to all AFTRA broadcasters. Please take this election very seriously, and vote.

There are 14 seats on the AFTRA National Board being contested, as well as nine seats on the local board, While ordinarily we on the broadcast side wouldn’t care that much who gets elected as actors, singers and stuntpersons, this time it’s very different.

A field of candidates from the radical Membership First faction of the Screen Actors Guild is trying to overrun and pack the AFTRA Los Angeles board room. If they succeed, we, as broadcasters, will be in great peril – because these extremists advocate both striking the major broadcast companies and disavowing representation of anyone who is not an actor.

Some of these radical candidates have recognizable names. One of them, Frances Fisher, has said she is "at war" with AFTRA.

It is not overstating things to say that if this group of individuals is elected and bring their hostile-to-broadcasters attitudes into leadership positions in AFTRA, that your health insurance and pensions, as well as your union representation, could be at risk.

That’s why it is of great importance that each and every one of you in the Los Angeles local vote, and that you vote for the group, including your local President Ron Morgan, who have formed the AFTRA Leadership Team, and who have set up a website at www.aftraleadershipteam.com.

The names to look for – and vote for – are:

Audrey Baranishyn
Nick Brett
Raza Burgee
Andrew Caple-Shaw
Roxanna Corte
Patrika Darbo
Sharon Ferguson
Jason George
Linda Harmon
Matt Kimbrough
Jon Joyce
Ron Morgan
Dan Navarro
Bill Ratner

Please make sure to vote for them on both the National and Local board spots in your ballot. If you don’t get your AFTRA mail directly, get your manager or agent to send it to you. If you don't get a ballot, call the AFTRA office and they'll send you one.

[NYC Street]

Your votes are critical!

[David R. Busse]

Your votes are critical!

A union activist from St. Louis Country Day School! I am impressed.

[NYC Street]

I think I can be thrown out of the alumni association for that.

But tell your friends.

This election is no joke.

[Diplomat]

Why does this activist want to kick you people out of the union? What is her issue, assuming she has one?

[NYC Street]

Dip, the issues that have caused the open hostility between AFTRA and SAG center on which union should have jurisdiction over certain acting jobs, primarily in cable, but also extending to over the air broadcast and some commercials. Because prime time shows are different from units like ours - shows come and go, broadcast units tend to stay working for the same employer - the way union juridiction gets established in these more transient units is different too.

The AFTRA position is that a union should be flexible, and, particularly given the economics of the media today, should make concessions where appropriate to keep production in the USA. the SAG position is that the vast bulk of the top talent are SAG members, and that if an employer wants to use SAG talent, they have to sign a SAG contract - one size fits all. The employers response has been to sign the SAG contract, but move the production to Canada, where actors don't get residuals -- except for the one or two SAG members they bring to Canada to work on the show.

The fight has been festering for several years, since a particularly militant faction took control of the SAG/Hollywood local. That local has a majority of seats on the SAG National Board, and thus controls the entire union.

One particular tactic this faction of SAG (which calls itself Membership First, and which we call MeFirst) has adopted is to try to run its own members for seats on the AFTRA board - two were elected last time, out of 75 or so on the AFTRA board.

Now they're trying again, trying to take over 14 seats in Hollywood. Their view is that the union should represent actors only, not newspeople, not DJs, not anchors, not weather, not sports, not announcers.

If they succeed, in my view it would be a disaster not just for AFTRA broadcasters, but for actors as well. One of them has posted on a Hollywood blog that they want to "take over AFTRA and destroy it from the inside."

That's why we're working hard to turn out the vote in LA for the largely incumbent slate known as the AFTRA Leadership Team. www.aftraleadershipteam.com

If you work in LA or know anyone who does, please urge them to vote.

[Diplomat]

NYC--

Thanks for the info. From what you have posted, I get the feeling that the anchors/reporters/DJs, etc. are only the beginning for these radicals. Something tells me they'll go after other groups next.

I'll contact my AFTRA member friends in LA and encourage them to vote.

[David R. Busse]

...that AFTRA and SAG are splitting. Good thing?

[NYC Street]

On one level, it's good. It allows AFTRA to continue to be the voice of reason in the industry, to work not against but with both talent and employers to improve wages and working conditions, while recognizing that we don't have the economic power that we had 15 years ago. I'm proud to say that AFTRA understands that in order for us to succeed, our employers have to succeed.

On another level, it's bad. It splits two unions that should have been much more effective by joining forces. It costs some people health insurance and pension credits by splitting their incomes between two unions, each of which have independent Health and Retirement systems.

Caution: both of those statements are gross oversimplifications of an extremely complex and still fluid situation.

But if there's one thing that is very apparent, it's that those who have an interest here (and that's all of us who are on the air) have a great interest in protecting the union against people who have flatly said that they are out to destroy us from the inside. And that's precisely what one of them said this weekend.

Dip, thank you - I know there's at least one AFTRA station in your market, don't know if it's yours. But the folks in LA are on the front lines right now, and in my view we have to give them as much support as we can.

The website is www.aftraleadershipteam.com