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.”
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.
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.
Website Supports Access to Gulf Spill Information
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Concerned about reports that members of the media are being denied access to people and places they need to cover the largest oil spill in U.S. history, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) has launched a new website.
Visitors to the site, www.aftra.com/access4media.htm, will be able to monitor published and firsthand accounts of reporters being denied access or censored in their coverage of the BP oil rig explosion and spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Journalists also can link to safety resources and related information to assist them in safely covering the story.
AFTRA is encouraging newspersons who have been denied access to information by the government or a corporation to share their stories via the new website or by e-mailing stories to access4media@aftra.com.
Workers Mobilizing to Get Fair Pay for Music Artists
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For the past 80 years, radio stations have used the publicly owned airwaves to make billions of dollars playing music without paying anything to the artists who created it.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) President Roberta Reardon and American Federation of Musicians of the United States and Canada (AFM) President Thomas Lee joined with members of Congress today to announce a strong push by the union movement to pass legislation that supports the fundamental right of American musical artists to be paid for their work.
The Performance Rights Act, H.R. 848, would close a loophole in copyright law that allows AM and FM stations to duck royalty payments to performing artists. The United States is one of a handful of countries that do not provide fair performance rights on radio. The others include Qatar, Iraq, Iran, North Korea and China.
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.
AFTRA Members Making Opportunities in Changing Media
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The old landscape of daytime entertainment is changing. The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), which represents daytime performers, is stretching out to make sure there are jobs in the new emerging media.
With the recent cancellations of “As the World Turns” and “Guiding Light,” there are few soap operas left to employ AFTRA members, says union President Roberta Reardon. The audience for soap operas is decreasing as more women join the workforce and are not at home during the day, she says.
The cancellations also affect the union, Reardon adds:
Daytime television is really an engine for us. It employs significant numbers of performers from background all the way up to the stars, and that’s hard to replace.
Artists Form Copyright Alliance to Protect Their Work
Increasingly, artists, writers and other persons who produce creative works are finding their work is being misappropriated, reproduced and distributed without their knowledge, consent or benefit. Now these artists are taking action to ensure their copyrighted works are protected and that they can continue to earn a living with their talents and ideas.
Several unions, including the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), have joined with major communications and entertainment companies to form the Copyright Alliance, a network of artists and creators working to protect their rights and the work they create.
AFTRA, IATSE Working to Rebuild Middle Class
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In the midst of an economic downturn, two entertainment unions reaffirmed their commitments to rebuild the middle class by organizing and fighting for their members’ hard-earned benefits.
AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Richard Trumka told delegates to the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) convention, which ended over the weekend, that now is the time to focus on organizing. He quoted economist John Maynard Keynes, who wrote in a 1938 letter to then-President Franklin Roosevelt that, to achieve a real recovery—a lasting recovery—the federal government had to invest in employment, production and purchasing power.
And that meant building the labor movement.
He didn’t mince any words about it: “I regard the growth of collective bargaining rights as essential.”
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.
