At press time, although a gag order imposed by federal mediators was being honored by the actors’ unions and the ad industry, indications had become strong that both sides were making progress in their talks which began last week in New York.
The most encouraging sign came late Friday (9/15), when after three days of meetings, chief representatives of the unions—the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA)—and the Joint Policy Committee (JPC) decided to call in their full negotiating committees. The JPC represents the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s) and the Association of National Advertisers (ANA).
Federal mediator John Muir said that the meetings have thus far been productive. And sources requesting anonymity have reported that talks lack the level of acrimony that surrounded previous, aborted get-togethers. Still, sources caution that there’s considerable work to be done before a settlement of the actors’ strike against the ad industry—now in its fifth month—can come to pass.
This is the third time since the strike began on May 1 that the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service has intervened and brought the two sides together. Mediators also got involved in April in hopes of averting a strike.
Up until now, mediation has failed and arguably has further polarized the parties. At the close of their mediator-supervised session in July, for example, each side portrayed the other as being inflexible and unwilling to compromise. SAG and AFTRA accused the industry of union-busting tactics. And the JPC harshly criticized union leadership.
Clearly, if this latest round of talks doesn’t yield an agreement, the strike could last several more months. And that period could see unions significantly escalate their strike activities.
Prior to entering their current negotiations, both sides jockeyed for leverage. The JPC claimed that commercial production continues to increase during the strike. According to the JPC, 2,010 new spots were shot in August, a 16 percent increase over the 1,725 lensed the previous month. The JPC contended that the July level of production was about 80 percent of that during the same non-strike month last year.
The JPC also released session fee figures for actors. For July and August 2000, SAG session fees totaled a little more than $300,000, as compared to $9.3 million during the same non-strike months in ’99. That’s a 97 percent decrease. Non-union session fees for July-August ’99 totaled less than $450,000. But during the strike, for July-August 2000, non-union session fees skyrocketed to more than $7.4 million, an increase of 1,670 percent over the same two-month period last year.
SAG and AFTRA countered that while the quantity of spots being produced may approach previous levels, the quality of work has not, with much-needed celebrity-driven spots conspicuous by their absence, except for a relatively few ads featuring star athletes. The unions also claimed to have nearly 1,900 interim agreements, which allow signatories to use SAG and AFTRA talent during the strike. The interim agreements contain a pay structure and terms that the unions want national advertisers to accept.
Just before talks between the actors’ unions and the ad industry got underway last week, the unions announced that the California Milk Processor Board had signed an interim agreement. At press time, the Milk Board was about to embark on production of three commercials reportedly created by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco. Jeff Manning, executive director of the California Milk Processors Board, said he wasn’t at liberty to disclose the identities of the directorial talent and production company (or companies) involved in the upcoming spot package.
Last week, Manning also told SHOOT that he had "no idea" the actors’ unions and the JPC were about to resume talks. He explained: "I just thought it was in the best interest of the Milk Board [to sign an interim agreement], because obviously this opens up the scope of people we can use. In the ‘Got Milk?’ campaign, the ideas are very important, but casting is everything to us."
The unions also continue to lobby local and state governments for support. This political push first manifested itself in several elected officials proposing to bar filming of spots using non-union actors in such cities as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and West Hollywood. As previously reported, these proposed bans have stalled in city councils. The latest action—which has elicited objections from the JPC—involves a letter and press release from H. Carl McCall, comptroller for the State of New York, calling for AT&T to stop filming spots using non-union performers (see separate story, p. 1).
—additional reporting by Sarah Woodward
