Advertisers’ Side Also Has Flaws

I am a 25-year working member of SAG and AFTRA and have made a large percentage of my living as a voice-over artist.

While a great deal of what you say is true [“SAG’s Internal Rift Hampers Strike Settlement,” Oct. 19], a few things you didn’t say are also true.

What you didn’t say is that, despite all the problems and differences of opinion in our unions, the resolve of the working members in this strike is very strong. No one thought, least of all the advertisers, that they would get such a tough fight from these unions.

I believe that no one wins in a strike this lengthy. However, the fact that the advertisers have put up such a fight when, by their own figures, the payment to talent in commercials (including the Tiger Woodses of the world) amounts to 1.4% of their budgets, should tell us all something. Either their corporate greed is beyond all bounds, or they know (like we do) that the emerging technologies in the distribution of moving images for entertainment and advertising is drastically changing.

They want it for less . . . much less. Their idea of “modernizing” our contracts is to do away with the pay-for-play formula that we have all worked harmoniously under for many years.

I suggest to you that, although a great deal of your article was true, an expose of the internal affairs of the other side of this strike, the advertisers, would yield an equal amount of discord, questionable ethics and pure greed. Do you have the courage of expose their side? I’m not holding my breath.

MICHAEL LASKIN

Studio City