AFTRA FLASH

January 21, 2005

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Late Thursday night, after five intense weeks of tough negotiations, the Joint AFTRA/SAG Negotiating Committee reached a tentative agreement with studios and networks on a three-year Prime Time TV/Feature Film Contract worth $200 million – the most lucrative deal ever secured for actors. As with all negotiations, we did not get everything we wanted but we did make progress on all of our priorities and, most importantly, the cameras will keep rolling, actors will keep working.

And as always, your Negotiating Team was made up entirely of working performers who rely on this Contract to earn their living. Every Negotiating Committee member is a stakeholder … just like you.

You will no doubt read about this deal in the press and hear about it on the street. I believe that once you analyze the package as a whole, and recognize the government, business and labor environment within which it was negotiated, you will agree with the recommendation of your bargaining team and vote YES on this Contract. Among the key elements of the tentative agreement:

• A 9% across-the-board pay raise over three years for all Principal and Background Performers, and - when taken in conjunction with the increased contributions in last year's Contract Extension – the largest increase ever of employer money into the unions' health and pension plans.
  
• Unprecedented increases in jobs for Background Actors.
  
• The highest possible residual formula for WB and UPN actors on one-hour digital shows - again building on the gains of the 2004 extension - and increased residuals for made-for-pay television programs released on video and DVD.
  
• A new, innovative system to allow series regulars to “bank” health plan eligibility credits while working that can later be used to maintain health coverage the year after their series ends.
  
• Increased safeguards for stunt coordinators and dancers as well as expanded coverage for choreographers.
  
• A series of limited experimental contract adjustments – similar to those agreed to by writers and directors –to encourage increased production of Dramas and Comedies, and promote the success of new scripted series.
  
• A framework for moving forward with long-sought reporting requirements on the employment patterns of performers with disabilities.

Like the Writers Guild of America last fall, we fought it out with the Producers over an increase on DVDs. We think this is only fair. We fought this issue hard to the last moment, but the employers were unyielding in their resistance to improving the current DVD residual formula at this time. Our DVD proposal remained on the table until the bitter end. It was clear that the next round would be a lockout or a strike.

We had to assess whether to forgo all of the other gains available, perhaps permanently in order to go to war to try for a larger piece of the DVD pie now. In the end, we decided that this was not the right war at the right time. In the end we made the choice to make a deal and avoid a production slowdown, and a lockout or strike.

The judgement of your Negotiating Team was to pick up the $200 million on the table in pay, pension, healthcare, new jobs, and other gains that benefit all of our members, and revisit DVD another day building a united front with all Industry Unions to do so. That's our best advice to you. Meanwhile, we'll continuing to collect DVD revenues under the existing formula which last year produced $115,000,000 in residual payments to actors, and averaged 12.5% growth annually over the last six years.

Your bargaining committee made the decision we believe is in the best interest of actors but, as always, the final decision is yours. The proposed Contract now goes to the SAG/AFTRA Joint National Board for approval on January 29. If approved there, it will be sent to the entire membership for ratification with the Board's recommendation, and Pro and Con statements.

I encourage you to carefully review the details of the agreement and do your own math. Base your decision on the facts and what's best for your career, rather than the blather.

In an era when many unions are forced to make huge wage concessions just to save a few jobs, like the airline workers; or strike just to maintain the status quo, like the supermarket workers; and where other unions are broken in the process, we have before us a proposed Contract that contains the most lucrative gains ever won by our unions.

And it keeps the cameras rolling for all of us.

I also believe it is among the most equitable contracts ever, in that the gains are shared across the entire diverse spectrum of actors and all performers working in television and feature films.

I have every reason to believe your National Board will agree and I hope you will too.

Happy New Year. Here's to a great 2005 for you, your family … and your career.

In solidarity,

John P. Connolly

President

AFTRA, afl-cio

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