Equity, the actors’ union in Australia, remains on strike, declaring that its members will not work on foreign (“offshore”) TV commercials Down Under until a labor agreement is reached with the Screen Producers Association of Australia (SPAA).
SPAA officially withdrew from the prior contract on Aug. 7, at which point Equity went on strike. Since then, there’s been no movement toward renewing talks between the two parties.
Last Friday (8/14), Equity picketed SPAA headquarters with some 150 union members turning out. However SPAA got wind of the plans in advance and closed its office that day.
Still, Simon Whipp, director of Equity (which is part of Australia’s Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance–MEAA), said the protest at SPAA headquarters reflected solidarity on the part of union rank and file.
“We understand that the producers are using casting agents to try to get Equity performers to individually break away and work on jobs,” related Whipp who is confident that union members will not break ranks until a contract is agreed upon.
Furthermore, Whipp said the union will take action if necessary in the event producers try to cast nonunion talent on foreign commercials shot in Australia.
Geoff Brown, executive director of SPAA, said that the organization’s producer members are currently bidding on projects and offering local talent work. “These are generous deals being offered by our members to actors. There’s no wholesale cutting of fees,” he affirmed, noting that producers are looking to fashion “flexible usage and session fees” so as to improve the chance of offshore commercials being produced in Australia.
“We have to be more competitive. We weren’t getting this work anyway,” related Brown. “We are hoping that local talent will see that offers being made are reasonable and acceptable. Otherwise we will continue to be in a pattern where Australia is losing out on [foreign] work.”
According to Brown, Australia has for some time been seeing foreign spot production, particularly from the U.S. and U.K., go elsewhere, primarily to New Zealand, South Africa and Canada.
Brown said that SPAA is hopeful of engaging local union actors willing to make “an informed decision in their best interest with their agents, working through casting directors and our members.” He added that SPAA is not at the point where it is considering bringing in actors from outside the union.
A series of contingency plans for producers who want to work during the strike is being drafted by SPAA. Brown said this document will serve as a template for producers to consider. “It’s not a document that will be imposed on any producer. It’s still very much an individual company decision as to how to proceed.
Meanwhile Equity’s Whipp noted, “We sent an open letter to the head of the Producers Association that we remain ready, willing and able to talk, I cannot force someone to talk to me but I very much hope that we can get back to having a dialogue to address the issues.”
Supreme Court Seems Likely To Uphold A Law That Could Force TikTok To Shut Down On Jan. 19
The Supreme Court on Friday seemed likely to uphold a law that would ban TikTok in the United States beginning Jan. 19 unless the popular social media program is sold by its China-based parent company.
Hearing arguments in a momentous clash of free speech and national security concerns, the justices seemed persuaded by arguments that the national security threat posed by the company's connections to China override concerns about restricting the speech either of TikTok or its 170 million users in the United States.
Early in arguments that lasted more than two and a half hours, Chief Justice John Roberts identified his main concern: TikTok's ownership by China-based ByteDance and the parent company's requirement to cooperate with the Chinese government's intelligence operations.
If left in place, the law passed by bipartisan majorities in Congress and signed by President Joe Biden in April will require TikTok to "go dark" on Jan. 19, lawyer Noel Francisco told the justices on behalf of TikTok.
At the very least, Francisco urged, the justices should enter a temporary pause that would allow TikTok to keep operating. "We might be in a different world again" after President-elect Donald Trump takes office on Jan. 20. Trump, who has 14.7 million followers on TikTok, also has called for the deadline to be pushed back to give him time to negotiate a "political resolution." Francisco served as Trump's solicitor general in his first presidential term.
But it was not clear whether any justices would choose such a course. And only Justice Neil Gorsuch sounded like he would side with TikTok to find that the ban violates the Constitution.
Gorsuch labeled arguments advanced by the Biden administration' in defense of the law a... Read More