The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) National Board of Directors today unanimously approved the creation of a Merger Task Force to work with their American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) counterparts in developing a formal plan to unite SAG and AFTRA members in one union.
The Board’s resolution instructed the newly formed Merger Task Force “to meet with representatives of AFTRA as soon as practicable, but no later than June 2011, to initiate the development of a plan to create a successor union formed from the best elements of both SAG and AFTRA.”
Led by SAG national president Ken Howard, the Merger Task Force members were selected from among those who served on the Guild’s SAG-AFTRA Relations Task Force.
The AFTRA National Board of Directors is scheduled during its meeting on May 14 to take up a corresponding recommendation to establish a 13-member committee to work in concert with SAG’s Merger Task Force in developing a formal merger plan by January 2012.
The SAG National Board’s creation of the Merger Task Force elicited enthusiastic support from the Guild’s top officers.
Howard said, “The message from SAG and AFTRA members across the country has been clear — they want this done as soon as possible. If our boards approve the merger plan in January, our members will make the final decision through a referendum vote less than a year from now. I’m proud that we’ve taken a major step today, and I’m extremely grateful for the unanimous support of the SAG National Board. I also want to thank AFTRA national president Roberta Reardon, whose remarkable leadership has been essential in bringing us to this point.”
SAG national secretary-treasurer Amy Aquino said, “As treasurer, and as a member of both unions, I could not be more heartened. Not only will creation of one union increase our bargaining leverage, it will allow us to pool our resources to give members the protection they need by actively enforcing contracts and organizing new work.”
SAG 1st VP and Hollywood Division chair Ned Vaughn said, “The entertainment industry is undergoing a transformation, and the only way for middle-class performers to remain strong is to have one union fighting for them with a unified strategy.”
SAG 2nd VP and New York Division president Mike Hodge said, “The labor movement is under attack in this country. As performers, we have to fight back harder than ever before, and joining together in one union is the strongest way forward.”
SAG 3rd VP and Regional Branch Division chair David Hartley-Margolin said, “Today’s action is a crucial step toward creating a new national union for media workers — one that will embody many of the tenets members across the country have been embracing for decades, both philosophically and in practice. We are finally seeing a light at the end of a long, long tunnel.”
The Merger Task Force was also authorized to engage advisors and create sub-workgroups in consultation with the SAG national executive director and other staff.
Effie UK and Ipsos Report Concludes Marketing Industry Should Do Its Part To Heal Societal Divisions
Society has never been more divided, according to a new report Healing the Divide in which Effie UK and brand and advertising experts from Ipsos explored brandsโ role in shaping society and healing societal divisions.
The report details how instability, inflation, and COVID recovery โthe convergence of multiple interconnected crises around the world that coincide with and amplify each other, causing hard to resolve systemic challenges, have become the norm over the past few years. As a result, the use of division as a weapon is now a major theme in todayโs culture and politics, and sadly 47% of the UK and 49% of the US agree with the statement that โWithin my lifetime, society in my country will break down,โ according to Ipsos Global Trends 2024.
While some brands have tried to respond to this, the report finds responsible marketing is now threatened by weaponized division. It points to the World Federation of Advertisersโ decision to shut down the Global Alliance for Responsible Media following an antitrust lawsuit filed by Elon Muskโs X, combined with DEI rollbacks, as significant setbacks.
The report says these setbacks underline the importance of marketing in solving collective problems, such as climate change, food security, and harmful online content. It also points to a need for marketers to take more interest in and more responsibility for healing divisions.
Research claims marketers are ideally placed to build and rebuild the antidote to division (trust, empathy, a sense of control, connection and collaboration). According to the Ipsos Veracity index of trusted professionals, society is becoming more trustworthy of advertising executives. Additionally, 57% of Britons agree that brands should communicate their... Read More