Unfair treatment of people in the entertainment industry

You must be "invited" to join SAG or AFTRA. You can't just join because you want to, and after you get the necessary 3 vouchers (which are almost impossible to get unless you are a very good looking young woman, or "know" somone in production or on the crew) which allow you to join, the "initiation" cost is about $2000.

People who are not members of these two guilds (they are not unions) are paid about half of what members are for doing the same exact work. Most of the people who back this are, and have always been Democrats.

Can somone please explain why members of a party which is supposed to be for equal work for equal pay are in favor of this setup?

But that is not my understanding of the Screen Actors Guild. I believe you need only provide proof of having a speaking role with a SAG production.

I'm not sure what you're getting at here. If you have a speaking role, you get paid more.

BULLSHIT!

Did you even do research to see that this was incorrect? Did you check the facts after being forcefed them?

You've been misinformed. It isn't difficult to join either one once you have the credentials (try to join a dentist's union without being a dentist).

there isn't ANY Hollywood Union or Guild that you need to have an 'invitation' to join. You do, as others have said, have to have a role in a Union production. When I joined IATSE, you had to get a job when the books were open and after 30 days employment - Bingo - you were in the Union. Yes, there are initiation fees and dues. They help hire BA's who get you the cushy $ and benefits.

One more thing - these days they don't have 1,2 and 3 cards - 3 being the lowest on the totem pole. You enter on the same level as someone who actually knows their craft. The days of the journeyman are long gone.

AFTRA and SAG "extra" or "background" work (no lines) pays almost double what "non-guild" work pays, for the same exact job. The ONLY way to get "promoted" to the AFTRA and SAG pay scale for "extras" is through cronism.

I agree that it is not the same to get in one of these guilds after you have at least some mastery of the art and have gotten a speaking role, but there is NO reason that there should be two pay scales for "extra" work.

making $10 an hour and the CEO of that same corporation making 8 million? Just asking.

but aren't the Democrats supposed to be the party of equal pay of eqaul work? Both non-guild and guild people should be paid exactly the same wage.

If you are not in the guild, you shouldn't get the benefit of the guild.

I don't think so, in this case. SAG is part of AFL-CIO.

I think it is just semantics - of course SAG is a union. What's the difference?

the "brother or sister" union to us. (They are now just one.) They were unions.

I even went through Federal Court proceedings to certify the AFTRA legitimacy in Texas. We won. But why the union didn't really take is another story.

See my post below. He confused me for a minute when he said "these two guilds (they are not unions)".

Not unions?

Well, a two second search set that straight. What point the OP was trying to make in that regard I have no idea. But SAG is, in fact, a UNION, and part of the AFL-CIO.

merged.

The actors balked (SAG) and I don't know if it was ever voted in.

-This is the old story of the rivaly between the actors and the other people in the industry.-

Although it's funny, they always negotiated together and with many of the same reps.

It's one of the reasons I left. Too much infighting.

as a union. Screen Actors Guild or Directors Guild. Still union. Just a matter of nomenclature.

I should be paid exactly the same as I would at Deloitte & Touche? It's the same job, right?

if you are, say, Robert Redford, you would be paid the same as Joe Schmo as he directs a movie, do you? Redford is a member of the union, and so is Schmo. Schmo is doing a union job and get the minimum. Eastwood makes somewhat more. (A lot more.)

And the better companies pay better - an analogy I thought possibly the poster could understand. But I may be wrong.

What would be the point of them collecting fees and doing arbitration if it paid their members the same thing as non-members? It goes against the whole concept of trade unions.

It's skilled work. It actually requires craft, focus and talent. Are you saying you are having a hard time getting extra work? Go back to school.

This is your beef?

When thousands of innocent Women and Children are being SLAUGHTERED in Iraq, along with our brave servicemen, this is what your beef is?

Jesus H. Christ on a pogo-stick! :eyes:

Get your mind off it and see if you can find a gif of Jesus Christ on a Pogo stick!

You have made my evening! Love it!

There are literally thousands of people working in the entertainment industry working as non-guild extras in Hollywood (not to mention all of those in the rest of the country) making only $50 a day, while guild members, doing EXACTLY THE SAME WORK get double.

Many Democrats, claiming to believe in equal pay for equal work, vote in exactly the opposite manner on this issue.

The cronism in Hollywood is as rampant as in Washington. The "Hollywood liberals" who run production companies are more concerned about saving money that treating everyone the same.

Look... if you are not getting paid what you are worth, thean MOVE ON.

I prefer to look at the bigger picture.

but I do know a lot of people who are forced into either doing this kind of work or working at Mc Donalds, partly due to illegal immigration and partly due to the fact that cronism runs just as rampant in Hollywood as in Washington. ALL I'm asking is that some Democrats step up and say somthing about it, rather than go along with the policy because some of their funding is coming from it..

have BIGGER fish to fry.

Once we stop this ILLEGAL war and the other atrocities committed by this administration we can focus on your actors union. :eyes:

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The people who are getting $50 would do better if they JOINED THE UNION. That is the WHOLE POINT OF UNIONIZING.

wish to join the Guild shouldn't receive all the benefits that the Guild negotiators have worked out for it's members. I am a member of an entertainment union, and totally believe in unions. If it weren't for my union, the company wouldn't give good pay/benefits to anybody but the top people. How old are you, just out of curiosity?

A LOT of her friends are interested in acting, but simply don't have the skills AS YET to get a decent speaking role. Please explain to me how a "non-union" "background" actor can actually join the union other than through cronism...either getting "tafted in" by being given lines or by obtaining at least 3 vouchers in exchange for "favors".

First - I checked & I see that SEG was absorbed finally by SAG....

Now, to the 'interest'...Burt Reynolds was my baby sitter. Joanne Woodward was my friend's babysitter. One of the top Special Effects people in the business started out sweeping parking lots at the studio as did a very successful Director of photography I know. Bob Newhart was an accountant.

Point is - Nobody I know started at the top. I worked on more than one film that was gonna make a star out of a nobody. The films never got released...no matter how many times the producer got laid.

If your stepdaughter is serious, she ought to get herself a waitressing job in the hottest place in LA that will hire her - and get up early every morning to make it to acting classes.Maybe she'll be another 'overnite sensation' in 10 -15 years.

The rest of your gripe is absurd. Hollywood is a business. It's rough, corrupt and connections count. Just like they do in any factory, office or job site anywhere.

why two people doing the SAME EXACT JOBS get paid differently. If this thread was about cronism in the oil industry rather than in Hollywood, you would be pissing and moaning about people not getting equal pay for eqaul work. There is as much corruption on the left as on the right. ALL politicians are simply full of shit.

Are you talking about Hollywood or the difference in pay between men and women in general?

right?

Isn't that kind of a leap?

I've swept floors. The janitor down at the university sweeps floors.

At twice the rate I ever got for the same job. Government work, dontcha know.

As for your daughter, I believe it's called paying one's dues.

While George Bush charges $400,000 a year to do it?

It happens all the time. The producers gain entry for the performers, just as any corporation's union adjunct applies for guild membership for a new employee.

You don't have to be a guild member in the first place to audition and go through that process.

Do you think she is talented? Does she deserve a speaking role? If she is talented then she will get a role after enough auditions, and then she will get her card. If she is not talented, she might be blaming the union issue for her failure. I got my card, very young. I won a part and the card came with it. The union is not the problem.

Crony! CRONY!!!! IIiiiiiiiiiiEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!

This stinks of a Karl Rove counterattack, completely with pre-loaded language. As the other poster said, there are people dying and you guys turn this into some game of rhetoric.

I ask again - did you even research this to find if you are in error?

A quick check on the internet of his profile name confirms it. NOT a freeper.

The senior ladies of Hollywood are going to come over and scratch your eyes out.

You'll summon Babs herself.

(I've been scarred for life by South Park, I can still picture the Babs monster)

A performer becomes eligible for Screen Actors Guild membershipunder one of the following two conditions: proof of SAG employment or employment under an affiliated performers’ union .

1. Proof of Employment

a. Principal Performer EmploymentPerformers
may join SAG upon proof of employment. Employment must be in a principal or speaking role in a SAG film, videotape, television program or commercial. Proof of such employment may be in the form of a signed contract,a payroll check or check stub, or a letter from the company (on company letter-head). The document proving employment must provide the following information:
— applicant’s name
— applicant’s Social Security number
— name of the production or name of the commercial (product name)
— the salary paid (in dollar amount)
— the specific date(s) worked.

b. Background Actors may join SAG upon proof of employment as a SAG–covered back-ground player at full SAG rates and conditions for a MINIMUM of three work days subsequent to March 25, 1990. Employment must be by a company signed to a SAG Agreement under which the Producer is required to cover background actors. Proof of such employment must be in the form of a signed SAG voucher, plus an original payroll check or check stub. Such documents must provide the same information (name, Social Security number, etc.) as listed above.

* Background actors: SAG is currently revising the entrance for background performers by developing a point system in which union and non-union jobs, along with educational seminars and sanctioned events count toward eligibility.

2. Employment Under an Affiliated Performers' Union
Performers may join SAG if the applicant is a paid-up member of an affiliated performers' union (ACTRAQ, AEAS, AFTRA, AGMA or AGVA) for a period of one year and has worked at least once as a principal performer in that union's jurisdiction.



http://www.sag.org/sagWebApp/application?origin=joinsag_template.jsp&event=bea.portal.framework.internal.refresh&pageid=JoinSAG&templateType=joinsag&portletTitle=null&contentType=null&contentSubType=Benefits+of+Membership&ln_idx=0

those requirements. I was working in the industry at the time (and was instrumental in forming the AFTRA chapter in North Texas). I even met Ed Asner when he was president.

That said. I wasn't happy with how they represented us and finally quit the union, pretty much in disgust.

AFTRA/SAG has a lot of ground to make up for. They really don't represent the "small" guy like they should. The actors resent the tech and anybody else that isn't an actor. They think the tech etc. get paid way too much. I could go on, but not now.

You are complaining that the non-union extras are not paid enough, and you are blaming this on the UNIONS. Believe me, if the producers had their way, every extra would be getting minimum wage. That's why unions came to be. Why don't you do some research into the origins of SAG? Why don't you consider what the working conditions of most Americans might be if unions didn't set the standards. Hint, the eight-hour day was not invented by the factory owners. Paying your dues, learning your craft to join a skilled trade guild, is an age old tradition. Not unlike slaving ungodly hours in a law office to make partner. Or working as a hospital intern while in med school. Or playing baseball on a farm team. Or being an apprentice plumber. Or... what is it that YOU do?

to places like Texas or Canada or Mexico. They don't have to pay the AFTRA/SAG union rate.

Unions don't make pay lower. People, think about it.

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So I'll say it again. What are you talking about? Of course SAG is a UNION.

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Screen Actors Guild is the nation’s premier labor union representing actors. Established in 1933, SAG has a rich history in the American labor movement, from standing up to studios to break long-term engagement contracts in the 1940s to fighting for artists’ rights amid the digital revolution of the 21st century. With 20 branches nationwide, SAG represents nearly 120,000 actors in film, television, industrials, commercials and music videos. The Guild exists to enhance actors’ working conditions, compensation and benefits and to be a powerful, unified voice on behalf of artists’ rights. SAG is a proud affiliate of the AFL-CIO.

http://www.sag.org/sagWebApp/application;JSESSIONID_sagWebApp=DLbpqGnjZmCZrHhHryMG0DmqGh2E5u9pmA8O0Y03Joc1l5Y2WRt5!1582196419!NONE?origin=hnav_bar.jsp&event=bea.portal.framework.internal.refresh&pageid=Inside+SAG
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this has deteriorated into flame bait