In a meeting held last week (7/19), the Finance Committee of the Chicago City Council considered, but took no action on, a proposal to ban filming of commercials with non-union actors on Chicago public streets and parks.
The Finance Committee instead voted to pass a citywide resolution that urged for the immediate settlement of the dispute between the actors’ unions-the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA)-and the Joint Policy Committee (JPC) of the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s) and the Association of National Advertisers (ANA). The strike against the advertising industry began on May 1.
The Chicago developments recall the recent events in Southern California, where the Los Angeles City Council recently considered a proposed measure to ban non-union spot shoots. The measure was sent to the Community & Economic Development Committee for further discussion and is unlikely to gain passage (SHOOT, 7/14, p.1). A similar measure is now being considered in New York (see strike story p. 1.)
Now tabled at least for the moment, the Chicago filming ban was initially proposed by Finance Committee Chairman, Alderman Edward M. Burke (14th Ward) at an earlier Finance Committee meeting (7/14). During that hearing, at which several SAG and AFTRA members testified, a number of aldermen, including Jesse D. Granato (1st Ward), Ray Frias (12th Ward), Bernard L. Stone (50th Ward) and Burton F. Natarus (42nd Ward), introduced a resolution supporting the SAG/AFTRA strikers.
Burke suggested that the City Council go further and deny the issuance of permits to advertisers seeking to film spots with non-union performers on public and city-owned property. Burke recessed the meeting until 7/19, in order to allow representatives from the advertising and production communities an opportunity to state their case to the Finance Committee.
Delivering testimony at the 7/19 meeting were Kerry Hill, director of broadcast and business affairs at FCB Worldwide, Chicago, as well as Gerald Peterson, a partner and lawyer at Chicago-based law firm Winston & Strawn, legal counsel for the Chicago Advertising Federation. Peterson questioned the legality of the city imposing such a filming ban and cited a ’86 U.S. Supreme Court case, Golden State Transit Corp. v. City of Los Angeles, in which the Supreme Court ruled that local government can not interfere in labor disputes.
Also opposing the denial of film permits was Richard Moskal, director of the Chicago Film Office, who told the Committee that local commercial production generates an average of $100 million annually for the city. Moskal testified that, in ’99, Chicago issued permits for a total of 138 spots (excluding stage shoots or productions they were unaware of). So far this year, Moskal testified, permits have been issued for 47 commercials. Since the strike began, only eight permits have been issued.
While the executives tried to focus attention on the harmful effects a spot filming ban would have on the Chicago production community and on the city’s revenues, the aldermen who spoke expressed support for SAG/ AFTRA’s position.
"I represent the Wicker Park area, the First Ward," said Granato. "I have a strong amount of members in the Screen Actors Guild; it’s my responsibility to represent my constituents. Any time my constituents are finding lack of work, I have a responsibility as a legislator to do something about it."
Relating that he has attended several SAG/AFTRA rallies, Frias said that he was disappointed both in the lack of media attention devoted to the strike and "what appears to me as an unwillingness on the advertisers’ behalf to participate in talks and find a solution to this." Referring to the advertising industry’s proposal to compensate actors with a flat-fee pay structure-which SAG claims would amount to a 75 percent pay cut-Frias added, "…a pay cut of up to 75 percent is unreasonable-it’s un-American."
In responding to Peterson’s allegations that passing a proposal to ban filming would interfere in the collective bargaining process, Stone said, "I can remember the strikes of the 1930s and, during those times, the way that management fought unions was they hit them on top of the head. What you [advertisers] have done here is even more dastardly. What you have done is sealed off every one of those cameras…..not one word was written in the newspapers [about the strike], not one second of time was shown on television….so it’s interesting when you say to me that this, collective bargaining, is the American way. When you’ve got your foot on someone’s throat, what kind of bargaining is that?"
Natarus said, "I’m opposed to [filmmakers] being on the streets for an altogether different reason. When you come into our neighborhoods, you’re like an army. You take over the whole street, people can’t walk into their houses, people can’t park their cars. I don’t know how you have all that clout and I have turned down a lot of your permits. I’m just saying that you have too much power.
"In fact, several years ago," continued Natarus, "I wanted to add sales tax on the amount of money that’s made from television advertising. I thought if we put a tax on your use of the public airwaves, we’d get a lot of money out of that…and we could then get rid of the property tax."
Time constraints prevented a number of production/ad community representatives from speaking at the hour-long meeting. Among them were Alan Sadler, president of the Midwest chapter of the Association of Independent Commercial Producers (AICP); Bob Carney, executive producer at Leo Burnett Co., Chicago, and Wayne Kubacki, VP of Chicago-based Essanay Studios.
Sadler told SHOOT he had planned to quote statistics from an as-yet unpublished survey commissioned in part by the Midwest AICP that attempts to quantify commercial film production in Chicago. Among the data from the report, slated to completed in August, is that production companies produced over $70 million worth of commercials in the Chicago area in ’99. The report also revealed that, for every day an actor was hired, a total of 17 production and crew members-primarily union crew members-were employed.
Other parties not present at the meeting, including JPC chief negotiator John McGuinn, sent letters to Burke protesting the proposed filming ban.
