SAG, studios launch PR offensives - 歐美

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117996608.html?categoryid=18&cs=1&nid=2563

SAG, studios launch PR offensives

Strike threat continues over holiday weekend
By DAVE MCNARY

SAG's strike threat has kicked off a heated holiday season
spin battle between for the guild and the majors -- with
each side blaming the other for being greedy during the
nation's financial crisis.

Both sides launched major PR offensives over the
Thanksgiving weekend in the battle over the upcoming strike
authorization vote, due to be sent out this month to
120,000 SAG members.

In a letter than went out on Thanksgiving eve, SAG
president Alan Rosenberg blasted the corporations for
harping on the bad economy.

"Like it's our fault," he added. "As middle-income actors
we are the victims of corporate greed. We didn't cause this
turmoil."

Eight Hollywood CEOs fired back angrily on Sunday in an
open letter to the entertainment industry, accusing SAG of
being elitist and stressing that the majors have closed six
other master contracts with the town's other major labor
unions this year (the DGA, WGA, IATSE, casting directors
and two with AFTRA).

The letter is running as an ad in today's L.A. Times.

"SAG is demanding that the entire industry literally throw
out all of its hard work because it believes it deserves
more than the 230,000 other working people in the
business," the letter said. "To comply with SAG's demands
would mean SAG merits more than everyone else. Saying yes
would jeopardize the trust we have so carefully established
with the rest of the industry -- at a time when this
industry needs stability to ensure that together, we
effectively evolve with shifting consumer demand."

The CEOs included Fox Group's Peter Chernin, Paramount's
Brad Grey, Disney's Robert Iger, Sony's Michael Lynton,
Warner Bros.' Barry Meyer, CBS' Leslie Moonves, MGM's Harry
Sloan and NBC Universal's Jeff Zucker.

SAG hasn't yet disclosed exactly when it will send out the
authorization, which will require a 75% approval from those
voting to go on strike. SAG will need at least three weeks
to conduct the authorization vote so it's still unclear
whether SAG could be on strike in time to disrupt the Jan.
11 Golden Globes.

Throughout his letter, Rosenberg portrayed SAG as blameless
in causing the contract stalemate, under which SAG members
are now in the sixth month of working under an expired
deal. The Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers
issued their final offer June 30 as the contract ran out; a
federal mediator gave up on Nov. 22 after two days of talks
bewteen SAG and the AMPTP went nowhere.

"Management continues to apply its one-size-fits-all
demands to SAG actors," Rosenberg said. "And we continue to
stress that actors have unique, reasonable needs that are
different, not better, but different, than writers,
directors and crewmembers. So they are telling us to allow
the unions who negotiated before SAG to be our proxies. I
wonder, would NBC ever let ABC negotiate its license fees
for them? Of course not, but they think it's perfectly
reasonable to ask us to defer to the needs of other union
workers and ignore what is critical to actors and their
families."

SAG's also sent a long Q&A message to members that insists
that the authorization won't necessarily lead to a strike
-- an assertion widely derided by the majors. The guild
spent most of the missive reiterating its contention that
the final offer amounts to SAG endorsing non-union
residual-free work in new media.

Final say over calling a strike would rest with the SAG
national board, where control shifted in September to a
moderate faction and away from the more assertive
Membership First group.

The CEOs warned SAG that a strike would be "self-defeating"
with actors losing more in the first several days than
they'd ever gain back. They noted in their missive that
they've kept the offer to SAG -- with pay gains estimated
at $250 million over three years -- on the table despite
the "rapid worldwide economic decline" and they stressed
that they're committed to the notion of pattern bargaining,
particularly in how to pay for work and residuals in new
media.

"We are standing firm behind our offer because it
represents a pattern of hard fought agreements over the
past year and its construct is vital to the future of our
industry," the CEOs said. "No single guild or union should
be allowed to undermine the hard-won consensus over how our
industry can experiment and then prosper in the speedily
changing new media marketplace."

But SAG told its members that such experiments in homevideo
and basic cable have ended badly for actors.

"The reality is that management is opportunistic and they
believe they can force these concessions on us because they
believe we are weak and divided," the guild said. "We need
your vote to prove them wrong."

How SAG members will vote is difficult to predict. SAG,
which shares 40,000 members with AFTRA, campaigned actively
this spring against the AFTRA primetime deal but failed
when 62% voted to ratify that pact. In September, 87% of
the 10,000 SAG members participating in a postcard poll
endorsed the strategy of holding out for a better deal but
SAG members then voted in a more moderate board a few weeks
later.

The CEO letter appears designed to push the rest of the
industry to persuade SAG members to vote no. "We hope that
every concerned member of our industry will study carefully
the terms of our offer -- and then think long and hard
about whether, at a time when millions of Americans are
facing extreme financial hardship, there is anything about
our offer than justifies a debilitating strike," the moguls
said.

A week-old No SAG Strike online petition had gathered over
15,000 signatures as of Sunday afternoon. And voice actress
Keri Tombazain disclosed recently on her Member 2 Member
email list that she plans to launch a website urging a no
vote.

SAG concluded its missive on a strident note. "Do not let
management intimidate you into accepting less than you
deserve," it said. "If we stay united, we will prevail."

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