SAG Strike Looms; By Comparisons Smaller? My Interview with SAG Member Justine Bateman

For so many in the entertainment and media industry; it feels like only yesterday; in some regards, it may well have been.

One hundred and forty three days following the one hundred and nine day Writers Guild of America strike, the Screen Actors Guild holds the spade as their potential strike looms. SAG and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists are not in full agreement and many of the members of both unions are trying to move their own agenda. This is a move which affects not just the actors in the unions and the studio higher up's but every corner of the industry: shop stewards, engineers, make-up, and so much more who are an integral, albeit dismissed portion of the cog who can't work when the actors don't work. Moreover is all the other ancillary business; restaurants, bars, hairstylists; who suffered and are more than a little wary of another work stoppage.

The 2007 Strike of the WGA is said to have cost the motion picture and television industry more than 2 billion dollars in lost revenue, lost product, and lost wages.

While many people are hedging their bets against this next strike going down, not everyone is so sure. I spoke with Justine Bateman whose words and vitriol seemed plainspoken, but her message arrived veiled.

Many remember Bateman as Mallory Keaton on the popular 1980's television show "Family Ties." Today she is a vocal member of the Screen Actors Guild Board and she continues to use impassioned language to get her point across.

"Patterning the SAG deal after any other deal doesn't take care of future work in any way," said Ms. Bateman earlier today. One of the biggest things which Ms. Bateman and all the SAG members are looking for is "reasonable protection for (our) members." For example, according to Ms. Bateman, language in the current contract under negotiation allows studios to "hold actors for no pay." In other words, a SAG actor who may not be in the shot, and whose work may be done for the day, can be held over indefinitely without recompense.

While many people may think that the actors making the biggest ruckus are the ones with the least to lose; closer parsing of the facts reveals a deeper truth. According to a recent Los Angeles Times article, annual earnings are less than $28,100 for 90.8% of its members. While many people would be fine earning around 30K for doing what they love, closer scrutiny reveals that annual earnings for 72.1% is less than $5,000.

This means that a majority, nearly ¾ of the 122,000 SAG members are probably holding down one or more other jobs while they're pursuing their dreams. When these aspiring thespians are held over on a shoot, they have to decide between walking out on an excessive director (which will lead, common legend goes, to never working again), calling out for their next day job which provides for things like food, gas, and rent, or running on no sleep.

Which do you think they choose?

The sticking point with AFTRA is even more of a dozy. Apparently the percentage of combined SAG & AFTRA members hovers somewhere around 3% of the total. It angers Ms. Bateman that a tiny group is holding back progress for the whole of the union by their "insane practice of undercutting SAG members." While most anyone would rather work and get paid, then not, the underlying subtext is that a small minority is trying to make decisions for the group. When many others feel they are being treated unfairly in this age of new media, there needs to be a middle ground.

With all that said, you would think that the strike would be going up soon, right? Not so fast. When I spoke to her, Justine Bateman was quick to point out that a compromise could be reached and that disaster could be averted. This seems to be the subliminal wish of many as the several months of not working are clear in their minds and they're not interested in a repeat performance.

"We could make an agreement today and everyone could go back to work."

It's evident that no one really wants to go back to what ended just a few short months ago. But she was also resilient: "The studios want to use non union work and there is not pay of residuals for new media," were two of her main points of discontent.

Much to the larger message was Ms. Bateman's more resonant message. "The only distribution in the future is the Internet." Even she herself has gotten in on the action with her new website www.fm78.tv. But there were haunting echoes in her calls as well; echoes which should resonate just following this Day of Independence for the United States.

"We're never going back to the way it was," reiterated Bateman about the new media quandary in the SAG contract. "The whole industry is going in a different direction," she said, "that's just a fact."

Duly noted.

http://www.latimes.com/classified/jobs/news/la-052808-fi-sag-g,0,3566589.graphic