AIP034 | Why You Should Vote No for the SAG-AFTRA Commercials Contract

The Acting Income Podcast with Ben Hauck

Show notes: http://actingincome.com/episode34

Host (and actor) Ben Hauck explains in detail why SAG-AFTRA actors should vote no on the proposed 2016 Commercials Contract.

In the episode, Ben outlines some of the important losses SAG-AFTRA actors will experience should they ratify this contract negotiated recently between the union and commercial producers. Namely, actors will lose use fees they typically get when their commercials are played. They'll lose these use fees (which could equal hundreds to thousands of dollars) when their commercials are simultaneously streamed on the Internet, New Media, or a future technology, and they'll also lose them when their commercials are edited for special offers and promotions.

In addition, SAG-AFTRA actors will be paid later than in the prior commercials contract. Furthermore, the proposed contract does not include a precise definition for the term "commercial," which means that a later definition may prompt the union to give away more of your use without payment to you.

Ben points out that the press release SAG-AFTRA put out points up the increases the union accomplished in the negotiation, but it doesn't include what the union lost for actors. Given this and other wordings in the press release, Ben deems the SAG-AFTRA press release as "propagandistic" -- an attempt to persuade members to vote yes on a contract that freely gives away fees for the commercial actor more valuable than the 7% wage increase the contract provides.

Ben urges SAG-AFTRA actors to vote no (#VoteNo and #VoteHellNo), but even more generally to simply vote -- even if they haven't worked in commercials yet. He explains their vote -- or failure to vote -- may affect the commercials contract they work under in the future. If SAG-AFTRA members choose not to ratify this proposed commercials contract, Ben says actors are not urging a strike so much as urging a continued negotiation to address the important compensation to actors that the union has bargained away in this proposed contract -- compensation that is aimed contractually at ensuring actors can work in commercials, be paid of the use of their work, and survive inevitable periods of unemployment that being identified in commercials creates.