Screen Actors to Honor Mary Tyler Moore
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We loved Mary Tyler Moore as Laura Petrie on “The Dick Van Dyke Show” and as the iconic Mary Richards on “The Mary Tyler Moore Show,” roles in which she created a new paradigm for female leads in television.
Now, her colleagues and co-workers plan to honor Moore with the Screen Actors (SAG) Life Achievement Award for career achievement and humanitarian accomplishment. She will receive the award at the 18th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards—the nation’s largest and only-nationally televised all-union awards show—which premieres live on TNT and TBS Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012, at 8 p.m. ET, 7 p.m. CT, 6 p.m. MT and 5 p.m. PT. SAG represents nearly 120,000 actors in film, television, industrials, commercials and music videos.
An accomplished actress, Moore has won seven Emmys, a Tony and an Academy Award nomination. She has won honors for her courageous performances, including her role as TV correspondent Betty Rollin who was battling breast cancer in “First, You Cry.” On the big screen, she has portrayed characters as varied as Beth Jarrett, a bitter mother coping with the death of a son in “Ordinary People,” to Elvis Presley’s last female co-star in “Change of Habit.” She was a hit on Broadway playing a quadriplegic sculptor fighting to determine her own destiny in “Whose Life Is It, Anyway?”
300 Join Labor College Fundraising Gala
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Lara Manzione of the National Labor College reports on last night’s “Time to Build” fundraising gala at the college.
Following the first day of the AFL-CIO Executive Council meeting held at the National Labor College (NLC) in Silver Spring, Md., the college hosted a “A Time to Build” gala last night. The gala honored Mark Ayers, president of the AFL-CIO Building and Construction Trades Department (BCTD), and the presidents of five entertainment unions: Ray Hair, American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada (AFM); Ken Howard, Screen Actors (SAG); Matthew Loeb, Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE); Roberta Reardon, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA); and Nick Wyman, Actors’ Equity (AEA).
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka says he selected the NLC as the location for this Executive Council meeting because “education is such an important part of the future of the labor movement, and a key way for us to transmit labor’s values during a time of change in our economy and our society.”
Colin Firth, Natalie Portman, Melissa Leo, Christian Bale Get SAG Top Awards
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The movies “The King’s Speech” and “The Fighter” and the HBO series “Boardwalk Empire” were the big winners at last night’s Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards, the nation’s largest and only nationally televised all-union awards show.
Their fellow actors awarded Colin Firth, Natalie Portman, Melissa Leo and Christian Bale top honors for performances in motion pictures and Alec Baldwin, Steve Buscemi, Claire Danes, Julianna Margulies, Al Pacino and Betty White for performances in television. The awards for TV ensemble went to the casts of “Boardwalk Empire” and “Modern Family.”
In her acceptance speech, Portman paid tribute to the union’s important role:
I’ve been working since I was 11 years old. You made sure I wasn’t working too long, made sure I got my education while I was working. I’m so grateful to have this union protecting me every day.
SAG and AFTRA Approve New Three-Year Deal
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Members of the Screen Actors (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) overwhelmingly approved a new three-year contract covering theatrical and television production workers.
The two unions jointly negotiated the agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).
Overall, more than 93 percent of SAG and AFTRA members who cast ballots voted in favor of the contract, SAG and AFTRA said in a statement.
The new contract includes a 2 percent per year wage increase, and a 10 percent increase in the current rate of employer contributions paid to the respective pension and health plans, one of the members’ top priorities, the unions said.
Screen Actors to Honor Ernest Borgnine
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For more than six decades, Ernest Borgnine has played an astounding range of characters on television, the big screen and on stage. His roles have ranged from the jovial and lovable captain on TV’s popular series “McHale’s Navy,” to the vicious “Fatso” Judson, who beat Frank Sinatra’s Maggio to a pulpy death in the Oscar-winning film “From Here to Eternity.”
He has portrayed the late FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover twice and won an Academy Award and a Golden Globe as the title character in the movie “Marty.” In his latest effort, he joins an all-star cast—Morgan Freeman, Bruce Willis, Mary-Louise Parker, John Malkovich, Helen Mirren, Richard Dreyfuss and Brian Cox—in the movie “Red.”
Now, his colleagues and co-workers plan to honor him with the Screen Actors (SAG) Life Achievement Award for career achievement and humanitarian accomplishment. Borgnine, 93, will receive the award at the 17th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards—the nation’s largest and only-nationally televised all-union awards show—which premieres live on TNT and TBS Sunday, Jan. 30, 2011, at 8 p.m. ET/PT, 7 p.m. CT and 6 p.m. MT. SAG represents nearly 120,000 actors in film, television, industrials, commercials and music videos.
AFTRA, SAG Reach Agreement with TV, Motion Picture Producers
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The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) and the Screen Actors (SAG) reached a tentative agreement with motion picture and TV producers on new television and feature film contracts.
The workers’ top priority was an increase in pension and health care benefits. The tentative deal includes a 10 percent increase in the current employer contributions paid to the AFTRA Health & Retirement Funds and Screen Actors Guild Pension & Health Plans. This represents the largest dollar value increase to the plans under these contracts, since the plans were founded, and is the largest percentage increase to the plans in more than two decades.
Executive Council: Piracy Costs Good Jobs
The AFL-CIO Executive Council unanimously endorsed the entertainment industry unions’ campaign to stop the theft of intellectual property, often called piracy.
The council noted that each year, digital theft of sound recordings costs the U.S. economy $12.5 billion in total output and costs U.S. workers 71,060 jobs. Feature film piracy results in an estimated $5.5 billion in lost wages annually, and the loss of an estimated 141,030 jobs that would otherwise have been created.
The council statement said, in part:
Motion pictures, television, sound recordings and other entertainment are a vibrant part of the U.S. economy. They yield one of its few remaining trade surpluses. The online theft of copyrighted works and the sale of illegal CDs and DVDs threaten the vitality of U.S. entertainment and thus its working people.
Union Members Mobilizing to Help Haiti
The union movement is mobilizing its members to provide assistance and calling for a massive global relief effort. You can help Haitian workers in distress by donating to the Solidarity Center’s Earthquake Relief for Haitian Workers’ Campaign. Click here to make a donation and here to learn more about how the center is working to help Haitian workers.
The TransAfrica Forum, a longtime ally of the union movement, also suggests donations to two organizations already providing aid on the ground in Haiti: Partners in Health (click here to donate) and Doctors Without Borders (click here).
SAG President Joins AFL-CIO Executive Council
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The AFL-CIO Executive Council today welcomed a new member, Ken Howard, president of the Screen Actors (SAG). Howard, who was elected to lead the actor’s union in September 2009, replaces former SAG President Alan Rosenberg.
Convening for a one-day meeting in Washington, D.C., the council heard from Ron Bloom, senior counselor to President Obama for manufacturing policy and a former staff member at the United Steelworkers (USW). The council and union leaders have repeatedly called on the Obama administration to quickly enact a national industrial policy to foster and sustain growth in the nation’s manufacturing industries. Increasing our manufacturing capacity is critical as the world prepares to move toward a green economy.
Pollster Celinda Lake also shared the results of polling on the economy and the political implications of a protracted jobs crisis.
SAG, NATCA and WGAE Elect Top Officers
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The Screen Actors (SAG) and National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) elected new leadership teams recently and the Writers Guild of America, East (WGAE) re-elected their top officers.
Actor Ken Howard was elected as SAG’s president in a mail ballot, with results announced yesterday. Amy Aquino was elected secretary-treasurer. Howard and Aquino succeed Alan Rosenberg and Connie Stevens, respectively, and begin their two-year terms immediately.
Howard pledged to strengthen the union’s bargaining power:
“I campaigned on the promise that I’d do everything in my power to strengthen our position at the bargaining table by building a greater unity with [American Federation of Television and Radio Artists] AFTRA and the other entertainment unions, and that’s exactly what I intend to do. Despite the sharp differences that those of us active in Guild affairs sometimes have over strategy and tactics, we need to continually remind ourselves that we’re all on the same team, fighting for the same thing—and by pulling together, we’ll only grow stronger.”
NATCA chose Paul Rinaldi, an 18-year veteran air traffic controller from the control tower at Washington Dulles Airport, as president in a runoff election. Rinaldi, who has served as NATCA’s executive vice president since 2006, will take office on Oct. 17 to begin his three-year term. He will succeed Patrick Forrey.
The runoff election was held because no candidate won the required 50 percent-plus one majority in the first balloting, which was announced on July 31. NATCA Executive Vice President Patricia Gilbert won a clear majority and took office Sept. 1.
Rinaldi said he plans to make sure the nation’s air traffic controllers have a voice in the workplace:
Throughout my career, I’ve made it my mission to further the goals of this union and I’m not stopping now. We’ve had a difficult last three years, but we’ve persevered. I look forward to ensuring that our members always have a voice and, just as important, that the FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] always listens.
