[NEohioPAL] AFTRA - FYI

[DALE SHIELDS]

AFTRA CONTRACT REFERENDUM

Many of us have been trying
to figure out how to vote on the AFTRA contract

referendum. Here's why we
will be voting YES:

First, AFTRA has made a good deal. In fact, under the current
circumstances,

it’s a very
good deal. As did the DGA,
WGA and AFTRA Net Code deals, the

AFTRA Exhibit "A" deal establishes important new principals,
and even improves

on those deals. It benefits every working member, and will immediately
put the

industry back to work without rollbacks or the egregious concessions
that

producers were insisting on (and SAG has yet to overcome). And it sets
the

stage for future negotiations.

More importantly, we are voting
YES because if this contract doesn’t pass,

it will set us back to a place from which we may not
recover. If the AFTRA

deal is defeated, we believe two things will happen:

1) AFTRA will almost certainly
step back and let SAG attempt to make a

deal without them.
AFTRA will NOT go back to
the table with SAG, no

matter what the SAG leadership is saying - you just can’t spend
years

openly vilifying another organization, destroying their work, and still
expect

them to come back and work cooperatively. AFTRA will let SAG go in

with its list of demands (that none of the other unions got) and hold us
all

hostage.

2) The film and TV industry
will largely shut down.
After July
1st
, either

our employers will lock us out, or SAG will strike. Despite the
assurances

from SAG leadership that “voting NO does not mean a strike”, there
really

is no alternative if the AFTRA deal is defeated.

WE ARE VOTING YES BECAUSE FOR A
DECADE THE “MEMBERSHIP

FIRST” LEADERSHIP’S JUDGMENT HAS REPEATEDLY BEEN PROVEN

FAULTY, AND THEY ARE WRONG
AGAIN.

The anti-AFTRA campaign that
SAG is waging is one more example in a series

of short-sighted "It's not
good enough – vote it down”
campaigns that have

brought SAG to a halt over the last 10 years:

•
1998 – Merger with AFTRA:
"Of course we should merge, but not THIS

way."

•
2000 – Commercials
Contract/Strike:- "We’ve only been out 4 months—

two more months and we’ll get it all”.

•
2002 –Agency Agreement: “Vote
this down and the agents will come back

begging.”

•
2003 - Consolidation &
Affiliation with AFTRA : "We want merger, just not

THIS merger."

In every case, their “strategy” has left actors worse off: The
Commercials strike

delivered none of the outsized demands, and cost $240 million in
earnings, $25

million in P&H contributions, and $7 million in dues. The defeat of
the

Agents deal has left actors with
no SAG agreement at
all, and absolutely no

protections—or recourse—with their agents.

But the most critical blunder was
fighting the merger, because had
the

unions merged, none of this would be happening
now.

SAG members were warned in
1998 and 2003 that if we didn't merge there

would be a jurisdictional war between SAG and AFTRA. But the
anti-merger

leaders—the same individuals in charge right now—insisted that the
unions

would simply keep negotiating cooperatively under the “Phase 1” agreement
as

they had always done. Having prevented the merger, this SAG leadership
then

spent last year attacking AFTRA and trying to force radical changes in
the

“Phase 1” agreement, leading inevitably to where we are now.

The DGA, IATSE, AFL-CIO and
everyone in Hollywood who cares about the

working people in the film and TV industry know that this self-defeating
and

destructive behavior must stop.Each of us individually and the industry
as a

whole have been hurt by the WGA strike and are now being hurt by the
de facto

lock-out caused by SAG’s
insistence on delaying negotiations.

Well, fool me once, shame on
you. Fool me twice, shame on ME. We won’t

follow the same "leaders" over the same cliff. And we hope that
you won’t either.

Vote YES.


Take care,

Ellen




Subject: PLEASE READ IMMEDIATELY AND PASS THIS ON

Reply-To: rusamr at gmail.com




Please read the attached letter to see why we are supporting the AFTRA
Contract.  Please vote YES, add your name to the list and forward to
all your fellow AFTRA members as soon as possible.  If you add your
name please send a copy of the email to
all1union at gmail.com. 



Dale R. Shields












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