AFTRA Leadership Team

Los Angeles is the largest Local in AFTRA - 37,000 members strong.  It is extremely important to have a President who keeps member services going while keeping the Union growing.

I am a proud Union member, I am a proud AFTRA leader and I am committed to bringing the best of AFTRA and SAG together while continuing to focus on the AFTRA members’ needs by building strong contracts and organizing. We need one strong voice, building one strong Union.

I am running to serve the Los Angeles Local as its Treasurer. I have proudly served AFTRA for over ten years when I was elected to both the National and Local Boards in 2000, a time when I was one of nine members from AFTRA and SAG assigned the duty to design and execute our strategies for the joint Commercials Contract strike. I have acquired a lot of titles over the years and have enjoyed a myriad of experiences. I have chaired or co-Chaired every Prime Time Negotiation since 2001, served on the AFTRA Network Code and the AFTRA/SAG commercials negotiations. I have been for 10 years the Western Chair of the AFTRA Legislative and Public Affairs Committee. I was National Recording Secretary for two years. For the last six years I have chaired the AFTRA Finance Committee and served as National Treasurer for the last four. A little over three years ago I became a Trustee to the AFTRA Health and Retirement fund. I have been a participant in every major strategic initiative this union has engaged in during that time, and no time has excited me like the coming year.

In the early years of my service, AFTRA was a union that was losing jurisdiction, bleeding money and becoming irrelevant in Hollywood to many performers. Things have changed. Boy, have they changed. Three years ago, AFTRA leadership dedicated itself to organizing work and growing its Treasury by the work it created and the new members it recruited. Two years ago we increased our Initiation Fee by $300.00 and dedicated all of that revenue to finance our organizing and hire the professionals we needed to execute it. Today, Los Angeles has 7,000 more members than it did at its lowest point. Our organizing work in Audiobooks, Spanish Language, Interactive Games, Cable and Network/Prime Time have offered our members thousands more jobs. Our Prime Time Network Contract at the same time now pays the highest minimum rates available to any actor in the world. Our growth in our bottom line is enabling us to rebuild our Information Technology, boost our Residuals Dept. where we can still turn checks around in less than a month, and put our members and staff out in the field to Organize ourselves internally and externally to create even more jobs.

I have had the privilege of meeting many of you at sets and in audition halls and our conversations today have changed dramatically. Now, I hear one message from all of you: AFTRA and SAG must put aside the disputes that have plagued them and combine to create one union. I have labored during all my years of service for some kind of merger, most of the time with Hollywood performers unsure of how they felt. That has changed. Completely. That is why I am so excited to be part of President Reardon’s forum for a New Union. We are committed to join with SAG Leadership and get this done as soon as possible, hopefully in a year. I believe that, with your help, it can be done and I will do all I can to ensure that it does. That is what the AFTRA Leadership Team believes, too. Please vote for our slate and watch as we make your wish our command.

Perhaps, you know me.  I have worked on AFTRA radio stations in Los Angeles most of the last 35 years.  Since 2006 I have been one of three Directors who represent Announcers on the Los Angeles Board.  I’ve also worked some stand-in and extra roles on AFTRA shows and pilots.  We may have met on your set talking about our union, answering questions about your contract, dues, health benefits, retirement, and ‘merger,’ as a visiting AFTRA Ambassador, too. This year I have the support of most local Board members and the approval of the 2011 Los Angeles Nominating Committee to run for 2nd Vice President, and I’m grateful! 

 Naturally, every AFTRA member who examines the ballot wants to make the best choices for themselves and for our entertainment unions’ future.   I believe you should vote for the AFTRA Leadership Team (ALT) candidates.  In my experience they are members who put in the long hours to get the job done. Fortunately, on the AFTRA Leadership Team web site we can go beyond the 100 words we write for the official AFTRA Voter Information Pamphlet.

 So, examine our views and our records as candidates for the L.A. Board of Directors, four Vice Presidents at-large, local Treasurer, the President of AFTRA Los Angeles, and as Directors on the AFTRA National Board. In the last five years I’ve worked with most of these candidates forming policy, voting on local contracts, getting staff to improve member services while easing relations with SAG, and negotiating jointly for better national contracts with producers and networks. And some of our ALT candidates are new.  I welcome their optimism, energy and ideas.  They appreciate our ethic and hope to work in service to all  performers.

 The AFTRA Leadership Team is blessed with diverse and excellent people who share the goal of our National President, Roberta Reardon, and President Ken Howard of SAG, and that is: One Union. Please vote for the AFTRA Leadership Team to make that journey the best it can be! Thank you.

Gratitude to the nominating committee for recommending my continuation as 3^rd V.P.  I am honored to serve the members of AFTRA.  

We continue to face challenges.  I appreciate and respect my fellow officers and board members for their dedication and diligence in making the best decisions for AFTRA and its members. 

With the blatant attack on unions in our country, ONE strong union is more important than ever for performers and broadcasters.  We must unite in our purpose and actions. I, along with AFTRA LEADERSHIP TEAM, am devoted to this purpose.  I hope you are too.