Arizona 2008:06

YOU'RE INVITED TO SAG'S 75TH BIRTHDAY PARTY

When: Friday, June 20, 2008, 6-10 p.m.
Where: Old Tucson Studios, Tucson Mountain Park, 201 S. Kinney Road, Tucson, AZ 85735
Cost: Included in the following prices are dinner, two drink tickets, favors and entertainment:
• $55 for SAG members (and one guest) who register by June 6
• $65 for non-members who register by June 6
• $75 for anyone registering after June 11, if tickets are still available

A registration form will accompany your invitation, so watch your mail. The form is also available to download here at our Arizona Branch page on SAG.org. Print out the form and send it along with your check to:
Screen Actors Guild, 3131 E. Camelback Road, Suite 200, Phoenix, AZ 85016.

Parking: Plenty of free parking will be available.
Questions: Call the SAG office at (602) 383-3780 or (800) 724-0767, or e-mail dlivesay@sag.org.
Don't miss this great chance to celebrate. Bring your family and friends. A barbecue in the tradition of the Old West is featured with brisket, chicken and all the fixin's. We will toast our VIPs and ourselves (of course) while we enjoy drinks and dancing to live music.

You'll be able to visit the Old Tucson Movie Museum and learn about all the classic films shot at the studio. You can have your photo taken in the Old Tyme Photo Shop and shop in the Corner Store. Most of all, you will enjoy a festive, once-in-a-lifetime occasion as we join together to commemorate the legacy of Screen Actors Guild, our wonderful members and all of the people who have helped build the filmmaking industry in our great state.

SAG AND AFTRA TO RESCIND
'MADE-IN/PLAYED-IN' WAIVER

By Don Livesay
Arizona Executive Director

On August 1, 2008, the waiver to Rule One, which permits members of SAG and AFTRA in Arizona to take work in non-union commercials that are produced and aired within state boundaries, will no longer be in effect. The "made-in/played-in" waiver, as it is known, has been in place since before either union established an office in Arizona. Beginning August 1, Rule One will apply to local commercials as it does to all other forms of production in which our members must assure that a SAG contract is in place as a condition of employment.

Here is how Rule One reads:

No member shall perform any services as a performer nor make an agreement to perform services as a performer for any producer who has not executed a basic minimum agreement with the Guild which is in full force and effect. This rule applies worldwide.

Let me share some thoughts about what Rule One does. Primarily, Rule One sends a notice to the industry and to other actors that members of SAG will not undercut each other by taking work where the wages and working conditions are not protected by an established union contract. Rule One calls for unity within our ranks, and in doing so, Rule One assures that the work of professional performers retains value, so one performer will not be pitted against another and forced to take bottom dollar just to work.

When members stand behind Rule One, it builds strength and empowers the Guild to organize more work where minimum standards apply – whether that work be in motion pictures, television programs, commercials, industrial/educational programs, video games, music videos, Internet work or any media format that exists now or in the future.

Because of Rule One, we have contracts that set standards before, during and after the session takes place. Those contracts spell out how auditions are to be conducted, how the work day should progress and what payments are made for the session and for the re-use of the product. Rule One leads us into negotiating agreements with the industry that provide actors with working conditions too often taken for granted, such as overtime, meal periods and built-in rest periods. Because of Rule One, we can bargain on behalf of our protected groups (women, seniors, people of color and performers with disabilities) who are most often discriminated against in hiring. We can set special working conditions for young performers, and we can establish safety standards for everyone on the set.

In short, Rule One gets us to the table. Rule One allows the union to face employers and speak to them from a position of strength for a fair return on the dollars producers make from our members’ performances. It tells producers that without a contract that adequately addresses our concerns, there will be no contract at all, and our people – the performers they need in their films – won’t work without one.

Rule One has provided us with the best collective bargaining agreements in the world, contracts that mean quality of performance and professional integrity. Rule One identifies who we are, and in this year of negotiations, as we celebrate our 75th birthday, let’s not forget that.

ARIZONA UNION MEMBERSHIP REACHES
ALL-TIME HIGH

According to a report from the United States Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, union member density in Arizona grew last year to 8.8 percent of the workforce, meaning that 230,000 workers in the state belong to a labor union. Membership and density grew despite a slowing economy. Arizona was the third in the nation in increasing union percentages statewide and fifth in the nation in increasing union membership overall. Arizona was one of the only states to increase union membership two years in a row.

Rebekah Friend, secretary-treasurer of the Arizona AFL-CIO, stated, "The increase in our ranks reflects the enthusiasm among workers to form and join unions despite a record level of resistance from employers. While the slight uptick in membership is a positive sign, clearly much more needs to be done to restore safe and adequate working conditions for all of Arizona's workers."

SIBLING RIVALRY

By Betsy Beard
SAG Arizona Branch Executive Vice President
and AFTRA Phoenix Local Board Vice President

Even those members who don’t read the trades regularly and don't listen and participate in discussions in union meetings have found it hard to miss the "troubles" between AFTRA and SAG. It seems like the end of the world, as far as union solidarity goes. If, however, you compare our unions to a dysfunctional family, the conflict begins to make more sense.

Brothers and sisters don’t always get along. Somebody is always wanting the upper hand. Somebody feels they make all the sacrifices. Somebody has to try and keep the peace. The players in the drama each want to be vindicated, to be deemed "right." This is impossible, since, just as in any family, everybody makes mistakes.

Professional actors unions are not, however, a dysfunctional family. We all got together for a reason. Artists need protection if they’re going to a) create wealth for others (the boat we’re in) and b) make some kind of a living doing it.

But just as in any family, there can always be errors of judgment, of misplaced enthusiasm, or any combination of factors, and now we have to go on, heal, forgive and forget. But we should not forget that our only strength lies in bonding together to face the world with a unity and unanimity of purpose that puts aside our differences for a greater good.

What do you think about all of this? I think it’s time we stopped examining every little bit of
he-said, she-said rhetoric generated by this current conflict. It’s counterproductive, and designed to make members take sides in an issue that at its very heart is about inclusion. We are strong, if we are one.

ARIZONA BRANCH WELCOMES

New members: Jessica Ann Frank, Eboni Gentry, Kaleigh Kennedy, Peter Anthony Trapasso and Allen Zwolle

Transfers- in: Brenda Adelman, Anthony Auriemma, Lisa M. Battiston, Katherine Gardner Bauer, Bibs Brown, Charles Cyphers, C Beau Fitzsimons, Amy Gillespie, David Michael Goldman, Jerome Patrick Hoban, Garret Jackman, Samuel Jacobs, Alex Krimm, Anthony La Motta, Resi Mamizuka, Zach Maurer, Brian Miller, Aarone Paige Montgomery, Camille Nighthorse, Maui Saito, Zoltan Vajas, Billy Vergara, Jonathan Voyce, Jim Weston, Kevin M. Whitaker and Ruth Ann Young

Welcome back: Dane Reilly

BookPALS IS FOR YOU

BookPALS is your organization. It’s a place for you to showcase your talents to the most open, appreciative audiences ever. You can get applause and hugs after each performance.

By joining BookPALS, you can read aloud to children once a week or once a month. You can read on a telephone line, so kids can call and hear you. You can collect books from your church or workplace to give to kids who don’t have books at home. You can be a PencilPAL and write to a student during the school year to help him improve his writing skills. You can get great satisfaction and joy for having touched a young life. Our volunteers say they receive much more than they give. That’s why we say BookPALS is for you.

BookPALS is the national literacy organization sponsored by the Screen Actors Guild Foundation, with branches in 12 cities across the country and more than 2,000 volunteers who serve more than 100,000 children each week by reading aloud at public schools, hospitals, on the phone, online and at special events. BookPALS is founded on a very clear premise that “children should be exposed to the magic of books to develop a love of reading.” The art of storytelling is an actor's craft. No one brings life to a book better than an actor. That’s why BookPALS has been built around performers.

The Arizona Branch, established in 1998, now boasts more than 150 volunteers reading in 38 schools across the state, on the telephone and for special events. Kids need to love reading in order to be successful. Won’t you be part of the solution?

Find out more about BookPALS firsthand by attending the BookPALS Party. This year-end potluck for new and experienced readers will be June 1, 5-8 p.m., at the home of Arizona Coordinator Ellen Dean. Call (602) 750-2923 for more information and to RSVP.

Hear from your colleagues how much fun they’ve been having all school year, and then become a BookPAL.

SEARCH ENGINE BENEFITS SAG FOUNDATION

GoodSearch.com is a new search engine that donates half its revenue, about a penny per search, to the charities its users designate. You use it just as you would any search engine, and it's powered by Yahoo!, so you get great results.

Just go to GoodSearch.com and be sure to enter the Screen Actors Guild Foundation as the charity you want to support. Just 500 people searching four times a day will raise about $7,300 in a year without anyone spending a dime.

June 2, 2008