WTF: Is SAG the Hillary Clinton of Entertainment Guilds?

Posted by Kevin Carr (kevin@filmschoolrejects.com) on July 9, 2008

SAG will fight AFTRA!

If you don’t get enough drama on television or in the movies, you can always turn to the internal bickering of the entertainment industry. Case in point, while Hollywood was put on hold with the WGA strike a few months back, the American public got their fill of drama by watching the industry whine about the fact that shows like “Desperate Housewives” wouldn’t get its full slate of shows for the season.

Now, there’s another strike on the horizon…

…or is there?

Some industry insides said the summer would feature a multi-guild strike with both actors and writers. But this dream vanished when the WGA led a 100-day strike that has now cobbled any strike by the actors. The TV and radio people get this. The film actors don’t.

For the past few weeks, The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) has warmed up to the studios. Now, it’s final. AFTRA has come to an three-year agreement that will keep “Desperate Housewives” on the air. We can all breathe a collective sigh of relief.

But not all actors favor this. The Screen Actor’s Guild (SAG) has not come to an agreement. And while SAG hasn’t called for a strike, it’s leaving the door open for one.

To which I say… what the fuck?

To make an analogy to a similarly bitter (and ultimately futile) fight, the SAG leadership clinging to the possibility of another strike is like Hillary Clinton pounding through the final days of her presidential campaign when Barack Obama had the nomination wrapped up for weeks.

I’m not exactly sure why SAG is holding out. A strike would be a pointless effort right now because it would go virtually unnoticed.

If you recall from the WGA strike, the pinch was first felt with TV writers, and even then it was first felt in the daily grind late night cavalcade – Jay Leno, Conan O’Brien and the like. The next ripple went through series television. We lost an entire season of “24,” got truncated versions of “Lost” and “Heroes,” and saw other series like “Battlestar Galactica” get their seasons split in half.

But even with the industry shut down for more than three months, we never saw a loss of movies. There were no weeks with empty multiplexes. The release schedules remained full, and we’re currently in one of the coolest summers for blockbuster movies in years.

In fact, even if SAG strikes, there’s enough movies in the pipeline to take us well past Christmas. Right now, the studios are thanking God for hefty post-production schedules.

The bottom line is that the WGA strike was felt almost entirely in television, and there was a solidarity among the folks in the industry to not muck up the strike by working on scabbed shows. After the industry has lost a third of its income this year, the rank-and-file workers (who suffer the most in these strikes, anyway) won’t be happy to give up more.

So, members of SAG… we get it. You aren’t insignificant. But you still waaaaaay more money than losers like me, and the public sympathy is dangerously thin right now.

Just take the deal, SAG. And then you can strike in three years when the wounds have healed a bit.


Read more articles by Kevin Carr

« Previous Article | Next Article »

Related Topics:

Opinions, Site Features, WTF, , , ,

Related Reading:

Your Ad Here

Comment Policy: No hate speech allowed. If you must argue, please debate intelligently. Comments containing selected keywords or outbound links will be put into moderation to help prevent spam. Film School Rejects reserves the right to delete comments and ban anyone who doesn't follow the rules. We also reserve the right to modify any curse words in your comments and make you look like an idiot. Thank You!

  • 790
    There's more members in AFTRA then SAG, hell there the same union bascially.
    Sag won't strike because aftra won't allow it.

    Let tv & Film production flurish.......!
  • Erroneous.

    SAG has about 40,000 more members than AFTRA does. And they are nowhere near being the same union. They do have about 40,000 cross-over or shared members, though.

    And AFTRA doesn't have much to say on the inner working of SAG. Their early agreement forces SAG's hand a little bit - especially since going on strike means running the risk of losing SAG members to AFTRA or losing those shared members. If all shared members defected and a decent amount left for AFTRA - SAG would see its numbers reduced to be equal with or even smaller than AFTRA.

    They are not interested in doing that. I highly doubt SAG will strike because Rosenberg is a pretty solid politico, but, yeah, you're pretty much incorrect about everything you said, 790.
  • I guess we need our TV right now as a form of escape with things as bad as they are. A strike would go unnoticed in the grand scheme of things. As a new writer, I don't know how things in Hollywood work at all. I'm thinking I'm better off in indie companies than sweating for Hollywood a single drop.
  • Kev,

    First-love your site-been reading you for a long time-good laughs, and nearly always right-on.
    As for the SAG strike stuff-off base bro. If we strike-the industry will be crippled. And to my knowledge, Desperate Housewives is a SAG show. There is only 1 prime time show that is aftra, and if I remember right, it isn't DH. SAG covers pretty much everything dude-movies, television, 99% of all commercials. If SAG strikes, and as a member I believe we should, if the AMPTP doesn't give us a workable deal, there would be long and short term ramifications. First, all of television would grind to a hault, with the exception of a few soaps, and 1, maybe 2 primetime shows. All others are covered under SAG contracts.
    Furthermore, a number of very large companies, with storied histories were literally wiped out when the writers went on strike. Now-that is bad for the consumer-and bad for all of us who work in the biz. That means consolidation. That means low revenue, which equals less quality projects to go around, which means that of our 3% of 125K members, not even they would all be working.
    This means less quality, and less choice for the consumer-and I will guarantee you will see less of a choice in the theaters immediately-because the budgets would be destroyed at the studios, having to stop production on all of their television shows, and all films in production.
    So, it is a bit more far reaching that most of the general public realize. It would be horrible for all concerned. Last SAG strike was a debacle-and this time around will be worse if it happens. We are all hoping that Rosenberg decides to be a negotiator rather than placing ridiculous demands on the AMPTP, and that the AMPTP realizes that the deal they gave AFTRA was bullshit placation to get them to break from a collective position with SAG. If they all have clear heads, you and I may be watching some great films this fall and winter-and beyond. If they don't, get ready to go throw some toast at a Rocky Horror Picture Show sing-along!
    best,
    MSH
blog comments powered by Disqus