VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[Deirdre]

----- Original Message -----
From: Bill Ratner
To: Bill Ratner
Sent: Monday, October 22, 2007 10:04 AM
Subject: I DREAMED MY UNIONS SANK..(forward to working SAG & AFTRA members)


This just in...revised, fact-checked and blog-ready...Please forward to
the in-boxes of your working SAG & AFTRA friends & colleagues...

I DREAMED MY UNIONS SANK!!!

My heart was going like a stuck printer-head. I tried to park behind
Marie Callender's, and 5757 WILSHIRE WAS A HUGE KOREAN PITCH'N'PUTT!! I
recognized a union staff attorney from the 2008 turf wars; she was wearing
a leisure suit from the '90s and carrying the meager contents of her desk
in a blue plastic storage box. The sidewalk was stained with a black ooze
from the encroaching Tar Pits to the West. A teenage kid was sitting at a
card-table selling SAG and AFTRA hats and maps-to-the-stars-homes. No one
was buying...I wish I hadn't woken up.

In 2003 one of the last Joint SAG/AFTRA Consolidation & Affiliation
(merger) planning meetings was wrapping up, where a dedicated group of
actors, broadcasters, voice-overs, singers and dancers had set aside their
differences and crafted a complex merger document good enough for the
majority of the joint board to recommend to the membership. Actor Matt
Kimbrough asked the group's veteran AFL-CIO/DPE advisor Paul Almeida,
"After all this, what if it doesn't fly and it's voted down by the
membership?"
Olmeida answered, "UNLESS THE TWO UNIONS CAN RECONCILE THEIR DIFFERENCES
THEY'LL DESTROY EACH OTHER. And somewhere down the line a third unknown
entity will emerge to replace the original unions."
(I think to myself, nahhh, that can't happen. Then I recall watching TV on
March 23, 2003, when Bush bombed Bagdhad.)

Question: WHY IS THE SAG EXECUTIVE OFFICE FACING OFF AGAINST AFTRA?
Answer: KARL ROVE IS ALIVE & WELL AND WORKING AT THE GUILD!!!
A coven of union-busting operatives are aiding The Master of the Big Lie -
Tell it often enough and people will believe it!
"THEY'RE SOFT ON TERRORISM!!"..."HE'S A FLIP-FLOPPER!!"...
"THEIR POACHING OUR CONTRACTS!!" (Fact: In the 1950s ALL network TV
sit-coms (let alone news, sports, & variety) were under AFTRA's
jurisdiction.)
"THEY WON'T SHOW US THEIR CONTRACTS!!" (Fact: AFTRA Exec Kim
Roberts-Hedgepeth's stated policy: "Any and all requests for contracts are
being honored."")
AFTRA IS UNDERCUTTING!!" (Fact: With repeated executive firings,
defections, & disarray at SAG, BASIC CABLE ORGANIZING HAS NOT BEEN A
PRIORITY. SAG OFFERS ONLY ONE CONTRACT LIKE THAT USED ON MONK WITH THE
DREADED EXHIBITION WINDOW!!) Meanwhile what has AFTRA been doing since
the '80s? Organizing Scripted Basic Cable. Dual card-holding SAG/AFTRA
members have crafted & ratified successful contracts for actors WITHOUT
FLYING TO TORONTO! Do some of them pay less than you'd make on CSI? Of
course. An episode of CSI costs $3-4 million; an episode of scripted
basic cable often is budgeted for $250,000. Do the math.

But I ask myself, what if my two unions really go to war? We know how
much money each union has in their war-chests (normally used during
strikes,) how much labor attorneys cost, etc. The result will be your
worst nightmare. What will emerge when SAG & AFTRA declare bankruptcy?
V.O.M.I.T.A. -- VOICE-OVER MASTERS OF THE INDUSTRY TRADE ASSOCIATION!!
With the advent of stage holograms, improved animatronics, and CG
animation, actors will be like firemen-on-a-freight-engine, and VOICE-OVER
WILL RULE!!! (Actor Tom Kane has reported that in fact voice-overs
account for the greatest proportion of P&H contributions.) How?
Thousands of voice-over performers work for dozens of employers per annum:
the studios, networks, ad agencies, etc. P&H caps don't affect them.
Regulars on a series or film stars? Their P&H caps from one or two
employers per year kick in at $250,000.

V.O.M.I.T.A. ARISE!!! Elevate me from this sweaty, ignorant fray, this
dim, bully-boy fundamentalist union-busting rabble, and carry me to the
heights of peaceful mega-success with V.O.M.I.T.A.!

...Think it won't happen? Then, make sure you DON'T send a letter to your
Guild asking them to stop wasting your dues money and draining our
precious union treasury on moronic intra-union cat-fights when THEY SHOULD
BE OUT ORGANIZING WORK FOR YOU AND PREPARING FOR 2008 CONTRACT
NEGOTIATIONS, not destroying two venerable performers' unions that have
served us all well for over seventy years!!!

Bill Ratner,
A proud card-carrying union member -- Hollywood SAG & AFTRA
(As the Unitarian-Universalist credo goes: "...May they dwell together in
peace...")
_________________
DBCooperVO.com
IMDB

[Deirdre]

---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: Fw: I DREAMED MY UNIONS SANK..(forward to working SAG & AFTRA
members)
From: "Thompson Howell"
Date: Mon, October 22, 2007 2:08 pm
To: "Thompson Howell"
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

I DREAMED MY UNIONS SANK..(forward to working SAG & AFTRA members)By now
you surely all know that SAG's National Executive Director, Doug Allen -
and those in a position to pull his strings - have picked a fight with
AFTRA just as both unions should be concentrating all their efforts on
preparing for the slew of negotiations coming up over the next year.
Either he is a monumental idiot, which I doubt. Or this is a purely
divisive move intended to foul the waters of the relationship between SAG
and AFTRA with the endgame of trying to sink AFTRA's ship for good. The
goal of these people is clear and their methods are equally transparent:
break AFTRA so that the power-hungry, short-sighted fear mongers who are
really running SAG get to call the shots from here on out.

I've already written a very terse letter to Mr. Allen letting him know in
no uncertain terms my displeasure with his goal and his tactics. This guy
works for ALL of us! WE pay his salary! Will you be silent and let this
madness continue? Or will you make your feelings known to him in clear
and definitive terms that he cannot mistake for weakness in our collective
resolve? Write to dallen@sag.org and sag_ned@sag.org. Then let your
National Board members know how you feel as well, no matter where you're
from and especially if you live in LA.

The SAG National Board is having plenary meetings this week through the
weekend here in LA with the SAG Annual Membership meeting to follow. It's
gonna be very interesting indeed. Now's the time to apply the pressure
and let your voice be heard. Tell them you won't follow them off the
cliff!

It was true in the past and it's even more true and necessary today: SAG
and AFTRA must be MERGED!!

Best,
Thompson
_________________
DBCooperVO.com
IMDB

[glittlefield]

Zoiks.

To me, this is just one more facet of our existence that needs to be re-invented for the twenty-first century.
_________________
Greg Littlefield
VO-BB Member #59

[Deirdre]

Hammer and tongs, baby.



_________________
DBCooperVO.com
IMDB

[bobsouer]

Deirdre,

To say I was surprised and dismayed at the SAG tactics of a few days ago is a significant understatement. I suppose this is the first time I've ever wished I were not Financial Core, because my thoughts won't be heard in this situation by either party.
_________________
Be well,
Bob Souer (just think of lemons)
The second nicest guy in voiceover.
+1-724-613-2749
Source Connect, phone patch, pony express

[ConnieTerwilliger]

Bob - AFTRA was interested in talking to the Fi-Core members while at VOICE 2007. We should hold them to that. I haven't heard from the people I gave cards to yet - and have been far to busy to initiate the call, but I have a feeling that there are a whole lot of us out there and that it is in AFTRA's best interest to listen.
_________________
Playing for a living...
www.voiceover-talent.com
YouTube Channel: http://youtube.com/connieterwilliger