Screen Actors Guild Cuts Off W & W Email Address; Asks Membership to Email Stephanie Perry instead

Background Artists add dramatic depth & atmosphere to film & television scenes

#majoritymembership #backgroundartistscoalition #sagmajority #unionmajority #fairwage #sag2020contract #backgroundactors #itsourunion #proportionaterepresentation #restoreourjobs

PLEASE EMAIL the Background Artists Coalition's MESSAGE BELOW, regarding the terms and conditions of the NEW Screen Actors Guild Contract - which will significantly affect the health, safety & livelihood of all Union Background Artists - to SAG-AFTRA, Director, Entertainment Contracts, Ms. Stephanie A. Perry, esq. as per her request at: stephanie.perry@sagaftra.org

As you may know from the Background Artists Coalition's (BAC) public FB posts, on May 24, 2019, the Screen Actors Guild (Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists SAG-AFTRA) arbitrarily cut off the opportunity for the Union Membership to email any further demands, requests or proposals regarding the Membership's concerns about the critical 2020 Contract issues that will affect our health, livelihood and representation to wandw2019@sagaftra.org after only having just recently provided that email address to the Membership.

As Background Artists constitute the Majority Membership of the Screen Actors Guild Labor Union, the Background Artists Coalition (BAC) felt this arbitrary - and very early - cut off date might limit feedback from the Majority Membership: Union Background Artists.

So during the Background Artists Coalition's (BAC) May 14th conference call with SAG-AFTRA, Director of Entertainment Contracts, Ms. Stephanie A. Perry, esq., we expressed to Ms. Perry that the arbitrary email cutoff date - more than a year before the SAG-AFTRA Contract under discussion expires - seemed premature, and that by closing down the wandw2019@sagaftra.org email address, SAG-AFTRA Leadership would be unnecessarily inhibiting an open, robust and necessary discussion about issues vital to the health, representation and livelihood of the Membership, and that SAG-AFTRTA should be providing as many avenues as possible to encourage that conversation, rather than to close down those avenues of discussion, and that the Union Membership should not be prevented from emailing their concerns about their Union Contract to their own Union.

And so we asked Ms. Perry to keep open the W & W email address, so that all Union Members have an opportunity to participate in our own contract discussions. But rather than agreeing to keep open the wandw2019@sagaftra.org SAG-AFTRA email address (which we thought was a rather modest practical request), Ms. Perry, instead, invited Members to email their Contract concerns, demands and requests, regarding the 2020 SAG-AFTRA Contract, directly to her at: stephanie.perry@sagaftra.org.

So, as the NEW SAG-AFTRA Contract will significantly effect our Hourly Wage; Our Opportunities for Jobs; Whether SAG-AFTRA demands a Raise for Background Artists, which SAG-AFTRA failed to do in the 2017 Contract Negotiations, despite its written promise to the Background Artists Coalition to do so; Whether SAG-AFTRA Calls for a Strike Vote BEFORE heading to the Negotiating Table with Producers, so that, this time around, the Union has the Power to actually Effect the outcome of the Contract Negotiations; The Minimum Number of Union Background Roles Required on Production Contracts across all Media; The income threshold at which we can access our own Union Health Insurance Plan; A Contractual Obligation for Production to Provide Safe Transportation for Background Artists - to and from sets - when reasonable and necessary for Members' health & safety, etc., we ask you ALL to please CUT & PASTE the message below and email it - as Ms. Perry has invited Union Members to do - directly to Ms. Stephanie A. Perry, esq., SAG-AFTRA Director of Entertainment Contracts, at stephanie.perry@sagaftra.org.

Please note: After extensive discussions with Union Background Artists, the Background Artists Coalition (BAC) has increased our Contract demand for the Minimum on Union Background Roles as Union Background Artists feel that this particular giveaway - coupled with the Screen Actors Guild's failure to keep its promise to ask for a specific raise for Background Artists in the 2017 Contract Negotiations - has caused Union Background Artists significant harm and must be sufficiently redressed in the 2020 Contract.

THANK YOU again for your input & for your continued support of our efforts to advocate for Background Artists to be paid a Fair Wage; the Restoration of our Union Background Jobs; Proportionate Representation for the Majority Membership; A Reasonable Opportunity to Access our own Union Health Insurance Plan, etc.

The Union needs to hear from as MANY members as possible. So please also be sure to share this message with any member whom you believe wants an actual raise & significant improvements to our working conditions and who will support our campaign for those measures to be realized & who will cut & paste & email the message we have prepared below (or one of their own creation).

EVERY voice counts!

And as this is OUR Union - as Background Artists constitute the Majority Membership - the Screen Actors Guild Labor Union needs to be reminded on whose behalf it is charged with the duty to advocate!

So we ask that you all Please Cut & Paste & Email the following Message to stephanie.perry@sagaftra.org and please be sure to ask ALL your SAG-AFTRA Member Friends to do the same.

Now here's the MESSAGE that you can simply cut & paste - adding your Name & SAG# at the bottom - and send directly to stephanie.perry@sagaftra.org TODAY:

As SAG-AFTRA Background Artists have labored under a deficient hourly wage for far too long, and because our Union failed to even ask for a specific raise for Background Artists during the 2017 Contract Negotiations despite having promised in writing to do so, and because the current Union Background Wage is Five Dollars and Thirty cents ($5.30) an hour BELOW the AVERAGE National 2019 Hourly Wage and Fourteen Dollars ($14) an hour below the Average Hourly Wage in the film & television industry in NYC, we herein demand the following terms and conditions for Union Background Artists in the 2020 SAG-AFTRA Contract:

1.) $35 per hour for all Union Background Actors across all media; 2.) 40% Increase in the Minimum Number of Union Background Roles Required for all production contracts across all media; 3.) A Rescission of any and all SAG-AFTTA Predatory Contracts allowing Union Background Artists to be paid Minimum Wage and, in some SAG-AFTRA contracts, NOTHING AT ALL and 4.) For the Screen Actors Guild to call a STRIKE VOTE prior to the formal Contract Negotiations for the 2020 SAG-AFTRA Contract, so that when SAG-AFTRA's Lead Negotiators, David White, esq. and Ray Rodriguez, esq., go to the bargaining table this time around, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) will know that our Union is serious, will know that our Union has our backs and will know that our Union will not accept anything less than what we demand or the Screen Actors Guild will shut down all Union film & television productions.

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SAG-AFTRA Membership #