At press time, representatives of the actors’ unions and the ad industry were about to be in the same building-if not at the same table-as federal mediators called for a meeting with the two sides in an attempt to help settle a strike that is about to wrap its third month. The New York session was scheduled to begin yesterday (7/20) and perhaps stretch to today, marking the third time that the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service has gotten involved in the dispute.
In June, mediation failed to produce any significant progress (SHOOT, 6/23). And in mid-April, the feds tried to avert the strike, talking with the negotiating teams for the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) as well as the Joint Policy Committee (JPC) of the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s) and the Association of National Advertisers (ANA).
Appropriately, going into their latest session with federal mediators, both sides in the dispute couldn’t even agree on how to characterize the proceedings. The actors’ unions described the meeting as a resumption of negotiations, while the JPC instead contended that mediators will again talk to each side individually to see if there’s justification to bring SAG/AFTRA and the JPC back to the bargaining table.
Indeed, as chronicled in SHOOT, the two sides seem to agree on very little. But there is at least a glimmer of hope as the actors unions’ planned to bring their full negotiating team to this week’s get together with mediators.
Leading up to this week’s mediation session, the actors and the ad industry continued to jockey for leverage if and when talks resume between them. SAG and AFTRA released a list of major advertisers-including Pepsi, General Motors, McDonald’s, America Online, Toyota and British Airways-that have allegedly been shooting commercials with union actors through interim agreements signed by small "front" production companies.
SAG president William Dan-iels said that the list was released "to put to rest once and for all the ad industry’s claims that no significant companies are producing commercials utilizing union talent, and paying the fair compensation the unions are seeking in a new contract, at this time. The fact is that numerous nationally known companies have been producing commercials with union labor during the strike; they’ve just been trying to hide that fact by working through smaller entities that have signed our interim agreements … Advertisers are realizing the necessity of professional talent in their commercials and doing whatever they can to get it."
The JPC has countered by contending that "a number of the prominent advertisers" cited by SAG have branded their inclusion on the list as "pure misinformation." A JPC statement read that "SAG’s claims do not alter the industry’s solidarity, nor do they give the industry any reason to change its position in bargaining." The JPC further noted that those spots supposedly using union talent have, by SAG’s admission, been local and not national.
Similar disparities between the two sides have surfaced in claims and counterclaims regarding assorted issues, including the financial bottom line of contract proposals and the impact of the strike on commercial production. For example, the JPC computed the union stance calling for cable residuals as translating into a 350 percent cost increase to advertisers. SAG and AFTRA have called that estimate inflated, and released a cost comparison which on average contends that the last JPC proposal represents a five percent decrease in talent payments as compared to the recently expired commercials contract. By contrast, SAG and AFTRA claim that their interim agreement generates a 59 percent increase over the previous spot pact.
The actors’ unions have labeled JPC contentions that production is "business as usual" as ludicrous. But the JPC alleged that production levels have remained at least on par with the pace of previous years. The JPC said that the industry shot 862 commercials using non-union actors from May 15-June 15, 2000. "The disruption experienced by production people on outside location shoots, mainly in Los Angeles and to a small degree in New York, has not impeded total commercial shoots … As a result, work that has left Los Angeles has picked up elsewhere," read the JPC statement.
It’s the "elsewhere" that has caused tumult in different sectors of the business. For example, with runaway spot production on the rise, Southern California-based crew members, support service businesses and employees, casting directors and others caught in the middle have taken a hard financial hit. As earlier reported (SHOOT, 7/14), that became clear from testimony delivered during the Los Angeles City Council meeting on July 7 at which a proposed filming ban for spots using non-union actors seemingly fell by the wayside when it was sent to committee for further analysis. However, other parts of the initiative that are now in committee-including provisions to ensure accuracy of location sites and the type of project listed by producers on film permit applications-appear to have a chance of passage.
Many at least harbor the hope that by the time the committee finishes considering these proposals, they will have become moot in the wake of a strike settlement. But for such an ambitious timetable to come to pass, the third attempt at mediation must prove to be the charm.
