In national voting completed today, members of SAG-AFTRA voted overwhelmingly to approve the 2014 TV/Theatrical Contracts. Members approved new, three-year contracts covering theatrical, primetime, and basic cable television production under the 2014 SAG-AFTRA Codified Basic Agreement and the 2014 SAG-AFTRA Television Agreement by a vote of 92.12 percent to 7.88 percent. The new television contract establishes the first industrywide agreement covering performers in both primetime television and basic cable productions.
SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers reached a tentative agreement in July on the deal that provides:
· Gains of $200 million in wages;
· An 8.5-percent wage increase compounding to 8.7 percent; 2.5 percent in the first year, 3 percent in the second year and 3 percent in the third year;
· Advances in Subscription Video on Demand (SVOD) coverage, including a brand-new residual for on-demand viewing;
· Reduction of unpaid online streaming windows for most shows; and
· An increased contribution rate percentage to our benefits plans and a mechanism to facilitate the merger of the health plans.
The agreement covers film and digital television programs, motion pictures and new media productions.
Informational voting cards were mailed to approximately 137,000 members of SAG-AFTRA, of which 16 percent voted. The final vote was certified by Integrity Voting Systems, an impartial election service based in Everett, Washington.
SAG-AFTRA president Ken Howard said, “Once again, we have made history. With the approval of the first-ever SAG-AFTRA Television Agreement, we have reached yet another of the goals we set when we merged. I am thankful to all members who participated throughout this process and the dedicated staff of SAG-AFTRA who worked to insure our new contract would usher us into the next generation of entertainment and new media production.”
SAG-AFTRA National executive director and chief negotiator David White said, “This is a terrific result for our first TV/Theatrical negotiation as a merged union. I want to thank the SAG-AFTRA members and staff who dedicated their time and tireless effort to these negotiations. We emerged with solid financial gains and with a structural foundation that supports the union’s strategic goals well into the future.”
The agreement becomes effective retroactive to July 1, 2014 and will remain in force through June 30, 2017.
SAG-AFTRA began talks with the AMPTP on May 5, 2014. Members voted on the tentative agreement that had been reached with the AMPTP on July 4 and overwhelmingly recommended by the SAG-AFTRA National Board in a meeting on July 12.
Carrie Coon Relishes Being Part Of An Ensemble–From “The Gilded Age” To “His Three Daughters”
It can be hard to catch Carrie Coon on her own.
She is far more likely to be found in the thick of an ensemble. That could be on TV, in "The Gilded Age," for which she was just Emmy nominated, or in the upcoming season of "The White Lotus," which she recently shot in Thailand. Or it could be in films, most relevantly, Azazel Jacobs' new drama, "His Three Daughters," in which Coon stars alongside Natasha Lyonne and Elizabeth Olsen as sisters caring for their dying father.
But on a recent, bright late-summer morning, Coon is sitting on a bench in the bucolic northeast Westchester town of Pound Ridge. A few years back, she and her husband, the playwright Tracy Letts, moved near here with their two young children, drawn by the long rows of stone walls and a particularly good BLT from a nearby cafe that Letts, after biting into, declared must be within 15 miles of where they lived.
In a few days, they would both fly to Los Angeles for the Emmys (Letts was nominated for his performance in "Winning Time" ). But Coon, 43, was then largely enmeshed in the day-to-day life of raising a family, along with their nightly movie viewings, which Letts pulls from his extensive DVD collection. The previous night's choice: "Once Around," with Holly Hunter and Richard Dreyfus.
Coon met Letts during her breakthrough performance in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe?" on Broadway in 2012. She played the heavy-drinking housewife Honey. It was the first role that Coon read and knew, viscerally, she had to play. Immediately after saying this, Coon sighs.
"It sounds like something some diva would say in a movie from the '50s," Coon says. "I just walked around in my apartment in my slip and I had pearls and a little brandy. I made a grocery list and I just did... Read More