SAG, AFTRA Members Ratify Commercials Pact
In a nationwide mail ballot completed yesterday, members of the Screen Actors (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) overwhelmingly approved new three-year contracts with the advertising industry. The new agreements cover performers working in commercials made for and reused on TV, radio, the Internet and new media.
The unions estimate the contract will raise members’ earnings by more than $108 million over the three-year agreement. The deal also establishes a first-ever payment structure in commercials for the Internet and new media. The new payment structure goes into effect in the third year of the contract.
AFTRA, AFM Call for ‘Fair Play for Air Play’
You can take a stand for the folks in the band today and tomorrow. Let your congressional representatives know that it’s time that radio stops stiffing musicians and recording artists and pays the piper…and the singers, guitar players, drummers, keyboardists….
When a song is played on what is known as “terrestrial radio”—the radio you receive over the air—the men and women who play and sing do not receive a single penny in royalties for the music they created. But if that same tune is played on satellite radio, streamed on the Internet or piped in through cable TV music channels, the band gets paid.
SAG, AFTRA Reach Tentative Contract on Commercials
Just hours after the old contract expired, the Screen Actors (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) reached a tentative three-year commercials contract.
The tentative deal with the Joint Policy Committee of the American Association of Advertising Agencies and the Association of National Advertisers must be approved by the SAG/AFTRA Joint National Board and the membership of both unions. The contract expired at midnight Tuesday.
It’s Crazy That Musicians Don’t Get Paid Royalties for ‘Terrestrial Radio’
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When you hear a song on your car radio, the boombox you’ve got in your garage or some other form of what’s known as “terrestrial radio,” you probably figure the folks who made that music are getting paid. The artists who wrote the music do receive royalties for airplay, but the men and women doing the singing and playing get squadoosh, nada, nothing.
However, if that same tune is played on satellite radio, streamed on the Internet or piped in through cable TV music channels, the band gets paid.
It’s time to close that loophole in copyright law, Paul Almeida, president of the AFL-CIO Department for Professional Employees (DPE), told a House committee.
Performers Call for Fairness in Radio
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Frank Sinatra couldn’t get them. Dionne Warwick hasn’t gotten them in nearly 50 years, and Sheryl Crow and Herbie Hancock still can’t get them. For more than four decades, musicians and singers have been trying to get royalties, also known as performance rights, for music their fans listen to every day on the radio.
Here’s the deal. If music you perform is played on satellite radio, streamed on the Internet or piped in through cable TV music channels, you get paid a royalty. But due to a loophole in copyright law, if the music is played on FM or AM radio, only the composer gets a royalty and the performer gets nothing. The United States is one of only a few countries that do not provide fair performance rights on radio. The others include Qatar, Iraq, Iran, North Korea and China.
Actually, U.S. performers get stiffed from royalties twice. Because U.S. radio stations do not pay a performance royalty for foreign artists either, American artists are not compensated when their music is played on stations around the world.
Yesterday, more than 90 members of the American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada (AFM) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) from across the country met with members of Congress from their home states to call for full performance rights in sound recordings broadcast over AM/FM radio. They asked lawmakers to support the Performance Rights Act (H.R. 848 and S.379), which if enacted would bring the United States in line with almost every other nation in the world.
AFTRA to Honor Four Entertainment Giants
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| AFTRA will honor legendary Motown recording artist Smokey Robinson and others at its annual awards ceremony. |
For five decades, music lovers have sung, danced and rocked to the tunes of Smokey Robinson. The list of his songs reads like a history of rhythm and blues. He sang or wrote such hits as “Shop Around”—Motown’s first number one hit—and such favorites as “Who’s Loving You,” “My Guy,” “The Way You Do the Things You Do” and “My Girl.”
Now Robinson, the man Bob Dylan proclaimed as America’s “greatest living poet,” will be honored for his lifetime achievement by the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists’ (AFTRA’s) Foundation during its Media and Entertainment Excellence (AMEE) Awards ceremony on March 9.
Along with Robinson, AFTRA will honor broadcaster Vin Scully, actress Jeanne Cooper and the late Don LaFontaine, a voice-over artist. The AMEE awards recognize members of the union who have made a significant contribution to American culture.
AFTRA Foundation President Shelby Scott says:
The AFTRA Foundation is proud to honor AFTRA members Smokey Robinson, Vin Scully, Jeanne Cooper, and Don LaFontaine for their lifetime of achievements that have entertained and informed audiences around the world.
Nurses Rally in Texas for Patient Protection and More Bargaining News
Hundreds of registered nurses in Texas, represented by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, rallied for the Texas Hospital Patient Protection Act of 2009—and more news from the “Bargaining Digest Weekly.” The AFL-CIO Collective Bargaining Department delivers daily, bargaining-related news and research resources to more than 900 subscribers. Union leaders can register for this service through our website, Bargaining@Work.
WORK STOPPAGES AND ACTIONS
CNA/NNOC, Texas: Hundreds of registered nurses in Texas, represented by the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC), rallied at the state Capitol in support of the Texas Hospital Patient Protection Act of 2009, which cracks down on unsafe hospital practices.
