Screen Actors Guild Rejects AFTRA Merger

Members of the Screen Actors Guild voted down a plan to merge with another performers’ union, a decision that preserves the guild’s independence but opens the door to clashes over work in emerging media.

Less than half of SAG’s voters favored the plan, leaving it far short of the 60% approval required to pass, according to results released Thursday. Guild leaders said the 42% turnout represented the largest of any referendum in SAG’s 66-year history.

“I think it’s a very strong statement by the members . . . that this is not the way they want to go,” said SAG President Richard Masur, who had favored the merger.

Members of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, which jointly negotiates with SAG for some contracts, had voted overwhelmingly for the proposed merger. But the concept--which has been debated for decades--needed approval from both unions to take effect. Only 46.49% of SAG members favored the merger.

Masur and other actors who wanted the two organizations to join into a 123,000-strong union contended it would provide performers more muscle in bargaining with Hollywood’s entertainment conglomerates. But opponents, particularly in SAG, warned it would flood the workplace with unskilled actors and questioned whether the two unions were compatible enough to function effectively.

With the ballots counted, union leaders said they still plan to seek a settlement to avert clashes over which one has authority over disputed areas of employment.

“It is not going to be an easy task by any means,” said SAG Executive Director Ken Orsatti. “Everything is kind of in shades of gray.”

The two unions jointly hammer out contracts covering prime-time television programming, commercials and nonbroadcast work such as training films. But who will control work on new media, such as high-definition television and digital products, remains an open question.

Also uncertain now is what the future holds for Masur, a longtime backer of the merger plan. SAG’s board already is badly split over his leadership, and some critics believe the defeat of the merger will weaken his position.

“I do not consider this in any way a personal defeat,” said Masur, who added the vote puts his presidency in jeopardy “no more than it always is.”

Backers of the joint union attributed their loss primarily to actors’ fears that thousands of AFTRA members who hadn’t met SAG’s admission requirements suddenly would be allowed to compete for work.

“We have a lot of actors already,” said Mark Cade, a member of both unions who plays a basketball player in a well-known Sprite commercial. “Anything we can do to slow the influx is better in the long run.”

Some actors also said the dues structure of the new organization would have been oppressive, particularly for the bulk of SAG’s members--the 80% who earn less than $10,000 per year from acting. SAG’s annual dues are $85 plus 1.5% of earnings over $5,000 up to $150,000. The new structure would have raised base dues to $195, plus 1.3% of earnings over $2,000 up to $100,000. (And under a so-called snap-back feature, if an actor took in over $2,000, the percentage would apply to his or her total earnings, from the first dollar.)

Some active AFTRA members expressed disappointment.

“I think we kind of missed an opportunity here,” said actor Curt DeBor, on the board of AFTRA’s Pittsburgh local.

“It’s keeping alive a somewhat antiquated system. It’s almost like the actors went back to ‘I have to do what I have to to survive’ and couldn’t see past that short-term vision.”