George Clooney tries to mediate AFTRA/ SAG mess

By Stone Martindale Jun 26, 2008, 23:16 GMT

04/10/2008 - George Clooney - "Leatherheads" Rome Premiere - Arrivals - Warner Cinema Moderno - Rome, Italy © Insidefoto / PR Photos

George Clooney is another star that has piped in on the acrimonious tug of war between the two actors' unions: SAG and AFTRA.

Clooney on Thursday issued a statement that reveals his neutral position, laying out both sides of the warring union's positions and focusing on the issues of the working actor.

"Both are, of course right," Clooney wrote.

Tom Hanks, Kevin Spacey, Alec Baldwin and Sally Field, who won an Oscar for her role as a union organizer in "Norma Rae," sided last week with AFTRA.

AFTRA feels that a work stoppage would be devastating to its members and SAG believes that if they don't draw a line in the sand, the studios will repeat what they did to the writers.

The move comes just days after Hanks, Spacey and more than 100 other SAG members went on record in support of the lab or deal reached between by the studios and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) and urged a "yes" vote on its ratification.

For SAG, which completed its 37th negotiating session with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers on Tuesday, the AFTRA ratification vote is crucial.

Big guns came out in support for SAG: Jack Nicholson, Viggo Mortensen, Nick Nolte, Josh Brolin, Rosanna and Patricia Arquette and others came out in support of the Screen Actors Guild's negotiating team and call for AFTRA to return to the bargaining table in a new ad to run Thursday.  That news came to USA Today from "a person familiar with the situation."

The guild will have little leverage at the bargaining table if AFTRA's pact is approved; if it is voted down, the membership will have sent a strong signal that it is committed to achieving more.

Nearly all the same issues as the writers' strike are at stake: wages, pension and health contributions residuals for all new media, curbs on product-placement advertising and increase in DVD residuals.

In his statement, Clooney laid out some "fundamental facts" that both sides need to begin with, including that the DGA, WGA and IATSE have already set the contract model, minus DVD residuals, and that breaking that model would "retroactively break the other models."

Clooney's full statement:

At the risk of being yet another actor giving his opinion about the ongoing fight between SAG and AFTRA, I'm hoping that there might be a way out of this. Rather than pitting artist against artist, maybe we could find a way to get what both unions are looking for.

Both are, of course, right. AFTRA feels that a work stoppage would be devastating to its members and SAG believes that if they don't draw a line in the sand, the studios will repeat what they did with DVDs.

There are a couple of fundamental facts that both sides have to start with ... first is that the WGA, DGA and IATSE all agreed to a certain model (DVDs not being a part of it). Breaking that model for AFTRA or SAG would retroactively break the other models ... so you can be pretty sure that the AMPTP isn't going to do that. The second thing is understanding the way these unions work. They're unique in structure to other unions.

Doug Allen (the SAG national executive director) has said on several occasions that this would be a negotiation for "the linemen, not for the quarterbacks." (Doug did a lot of the negotiating for the NFL.) The spirit of the statement isn't wrong ... it's just the structure. Unlike the NFL, in this guild, the quarterbacks protect the linemen. I've been very lucky in my career, which has put me in the place that I don't need a union to check on my residuals, or my pension, or protect my 12-hour turnaround. I used to need that, and may again ... but right now I don't. That means it's my responsibility to look out for actors who are trying to stay afloat from year to year. Anything less is irresponsible of me.

Work stoppage will do a great deal of harm to those actors ... agencies will close ... TV pilots won't get made ... more reality shows ... we all know the scenario. But that doesn't mean just roll over and give the producers what they want ... it means diligence.

The producers say that there's no money in new media right now. There's some truth in that ... for this moment. It was also true for cable, VHS and DVD ... all of which became very profitable for the studios ... and the actors were out in the cold. With new media, we have our foot in the door, but who's to say a year from now, if it becomes profitable, that the same thing won't happen again ... actors out in the cold. So here are a couple of ways that the quarterbacks can protect the linemen:

First, we set up a panel ... Jack Nicholson and Tom Hanks, for instance ... 10 of them that sit down with the studio heads once a year ... 10 people that the studio heads don't often say "no" to. Those 10 people walk in the door with all the new data that SAG and AFTRA compile, and adjust the pay for actors... once a year.

Second, we go to the actors who make an exorbitant amount of money, and raise their dues. Right now, there's a cap of 6,000 bucks that actors pay their union ... based on $1 million in earnings. Make it $6,000 for every million ... if someone makes $20 million, they pay $120,000 into the union. That could go a long way in helping pensions and health care. The quarterbacks have to do more.

To be sure, I'm not the brightest bulb out there. So maybe someone has a lot better idea ... I just happen to believe so strongly in both unions ... my father, my mother, aunt, uncle, even cousins were all members of either SAG or AFTRA long before me.

What we can't do is pit artist against artist ... because the one thing you can be sure of is that stories about Jack Nicholson vs. Tom Hanks only strengthens the negotiating power of the AMPTP.