WHAT A YEAR!
BY MATT KIMBROUGH
I am your National Treasurer and Chair the Finance
Committee. I also sit as a Trustee
to the Health and Retirement Plan.
Money is the lifeblood of any institution. The numbers tell a
tale of
its health and its history in the most objective way possible. Looking
back
over the last year, all I can say
about AFTRA is, WOW! WHAT A YEAR!
First, the overall diagnosis. A year ago, in the trough
of a
horrible industry-wide recession and falling job numbers, we formulated a
budget that projected a deficit in excess of $800,000 for the year. We
feared a
future of declining revenues and
reduced service. We froze the
salaries of better paid staff, we cut benefit accruals for both staff
and
participants in the Plan, and contemplated how we could raise revenue to
keep
our doors open. Now, nearing the end of the fiscal year, on April 30, we
will
have finished it with a SURPLUS OF OVER $2,000,000, nearly 3,000 new
members in
Los Angeles, restoration of cuts on the staff, as many as five new staff
hires,
and a Health and Retirement plan given the “green
light” of good health by our actuaries. We have a
budget for next year that projects easily covering our costs. What a
year.
The fact is, we have a lot more jobs in television
available
to our members today, and they have
responded in droves by joining or
re-instating their memberships.
That is a good thing, but AFTRA Leadership
sees this as a challenge more than merely good
fortune. We have changed the primary mission of our union from being “in service” to “organizing”.
What is the difference?
It means you raise money to have staff and members out in the field,
communicating with current and future members and employers, making the
case
that AFTRA is a union that works.
At Convention last summer we raised our initiation fees $300,
mandating
that all of that money go to create an organizing staff and an “AFTRA
AMBASSADOR” campaign that would put our leaders in the field meeting and
talking directly with membership and listening to them, using this
practice to
develop future campaigns and create a personal relationship between the
union
and its members. We realize that membership must have a personal
relationship
with AFTRA in order to know its value to them. Ultimately, it means we
will be
going out into the un-organized non-union areas of our industry and make
the
case to those workers that their lives would improve by being a union
member
and securing a union contract.
We are in the process of making a new union. This union
is
one that reflects the new 21st Century work place in
electronic news
and entertainment. It is a union that brings all media performers
together to
maximize their collective power. It is a union that is not afraid to
join with
other unions to bring all performers together and, by joining, create a
voice
that will preserve the benefits of a union contract in every part of the
industry. It is a union that
recognizes that all the incredibly diverse delivery systems of programming require a nuanced and
diverse approach; that if we are
going to participate in all the new opportunities that are presenting
themselves that we will have to be recognized as the place where the
talent can
be found, and where employers can
find practical contracts and where, if one is fortunate enough to get
hired,
members can forge a good life for themselves and their loved ones. THE
AFTRA
LEADERSHIP TEAM has been
the forgers of this vision. With
your support, we can bring this all to fruition.
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THIS IS HOW A UNION IS SUPPOSED TO WORK
BY ANDREW CAPLE
SHAW
I’ve seen first hand what a union looks like at its best, and
I’ve seen first hand what a union looks like at its worst. As an actor,
I hope and pray this era in AFTRA lasts as long as it can. Not only
are we working again, but our union is working for us like never before.I am proud of what AFTRA has
done for performers over the last few years. I couldn’t be more proud
of the role the AFTRA Leadership Team has played in getting the
organization to a place where it functions at its maximum capacity. You
see it in the increasing number of AFTRA jobs you are sent out on; jobs
on the major networks, jobs on cable, jobs in video games, jobs on the
radio, jobs online… No working actor can deny that AFTRA has been
creating opportunity for performers like never before.While other organizations were
struggling with change, AFTRA was integrating change into its organizing
strategy. AFTRA united around its key goals of creating more union
work, fighting for higher pay, and ensuring a safer workplace. It was
done by establishing a healthy, cooperative work dynamic, and by
building a strong connection between the dues-paying members and the
salaried staff.The AFTRA Leadership Team, within the LA local, functions like
the ideal democratic body should. Issues are raised in board meetings
and committee meetings. Smart people with passionate feelings duke it
out. Sessions sometimes go long, emotions often run high, and things
can even get ugly as everyone fights for their positions using every
possible argument at their disposal. But when the gavel comes down and
the votes are cast, they put their feelings on the shelf, get behind the
policies that have earned the most support, hit the streets to make the
plan work, and set their sights on the real opponents: the media giants
on the other side of the table, the pirates robbing us of our
livelihood, and the pay disparities that come about when new
technologies become part of our daily lives.Before AFTRA, my only experience
with a union had been an ugly one. After the first few months of
involvement in "organized" labor I was done with union service for good,
having seen every bit of petty corruption my anti-labor family and
friends had told me unions were all about. I encountered candidates and
elected officers who seemed more concerned with politics than with
policy. The day I walked away I thought I would never go back to union
service again.But a friend of the AFTRA Leadership Team encouraged me to meet
with some folks from the AFTRA board. Now ten years later I can
honestly say my affiliation with this group is one of the proudest
accomplishments of my life. I know because of this team there are
people with health insurance who otherwise wouldn’t have it. I know
that without this team, creative professionals out there working on TV
shows and on the radio could never have brought their characters to
life. I got to be a part of a true democratic success story, a
leadership made up of performers who work in the business, love the
business, and care about their fellow artists.How many times in the last two
pilot seasons, with labor unrest and a terrible economy, have I heard
agents, actors, and crew members use the phrase, “Thank God for AFTRA?”In this complex and frustrating
world of bank bail-outs, broken bureaucracies, corrupt or apathetic
leaders, and inefficient institutions, it is important to recognize when
a group of people come together so that an organization gets it right.
At this unique window in time you have that in AFTRA. Hold onto it as
long as you can. Continue to elect these people as long as they are
willing to do the work. And thank God for AFTRA.
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ORGANIZE
We need to change our verbs.
BY SUSAN BOYD JOYCE
In ancient days at the old
school, we learned that the word "transitive", used to describe a verb,
translates to "action". In a perfect world there would be no unions.
Workers would earn a decent living. We'd all have access to health care
and a pension for retirement. Employers would share enough of the
wealth to keep standards high for every worker in every medium. In the
real world, unions are transitive verbs. Unions transform, act,
mobilize and grow.
AFTRA was born out of radio and television and that's
where we served the members. Radio and TV networks defined the scope of
our work, networks whose owners were by their nature entrepreneurial,
creative companies.
We've seen our work disperse, like salt in water. Now
it is everywhere, in every medium and every format imaginable. Most
bosses are no longer fellow creators, but business moguls and profit
machines. Product (that's us) is cranked out at hyperspace rate. If
you're not a Big Five shareholder, you're a Big Five sharecropper,
working the land even as it is being chopped out from under you.
AFTRA leadership knows we
cannot watch it all go by. We must transform our service model to
reflect our memberships' needs and the 24/7 nature of the work we do.
We must act to cover the work in whatever medium it is performed. We
must mobilize our members; reach out to them, remind them that our
collective power is found nowhere else in this industry. We must
provide the tools members need to move AFTRA forward.
We must grow. Union vs. Union
should nevermore be a bout on a title card. Our challenge is to bring
the bosses to the table and remind them that all our work has value no
matter what the venue. And no matter what "they" say, the growing and
talented non-union work force must be transformed as well.
We all have work to do if we
want our creative way of life to survive. When a union member calls and
asks you to make a meeting, sign a statement of support, vote in an
election - say yes. Union organizing means you. Change your verbs -
act for union.
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IN THE BOARD ROOM
BY MIMI COZZENS
I decided to run for the local
board of AFTRA because at the time I felt AFTRA was being maligned by
outside forces unjustly. Since serving on the Board I am struck by the
enthusiasm, good will and get the job done attitude of those seated in
the Board Room. I attended the AFTRA convention in Chicago in July and
witnessed the same kind of attitude from those on the National Board as
well as members from locals around the country. As I see it, it all
starts with Roberta Reardon our National President and filters down from
there. She has led AFTRA to be a stronger union that is most
importantly creating more and more work for our members, as evidenced by
the number of AFTRA pilots this season and the increase in membership.
In addition she has set into motion a plan to reach out to the
membership on an individual basis so that we can hear, address and act
on members' concerns through the newly formed Ambassadors program as it
is called in Los Angeles. We Ambassadors go to the working sets with our
AFTRA Reps and talk to the members directly, answer their questions
when possible and report back to the union. I remember when we didn’t
have a union to represent television performers.
Television was in its
infancy when I worked for 36 weeks as a young teenager on a show called
Teen Topper Revue. We were paid in merchandise from whoever was
sponsoring us that week. Now wouldn’t it have been nice if I could have
had those weeks to contribute to my pension and health plan! That is
what a union is all about, getting us the wages we deserve, working in a
safe environment and providing us with health and pension benefits.
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AMBASSADOR LEADERSHIP
BY RAZA BURGEE
The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists - AFTRA - is your union. We have always been focused on serving members, and in the last year we have expanded that focus to organize our members into an educated, involved force - vital to our union and to our working lives. The Leadership of AFTRA has found a unique manner to take care of you the member to enforce protection, maintain a dialogue, and cover large areas of territory on behalf of its general membership, along with the present working base of union members.
They are called Ambassadors. They are armed with an invisible weapon called information -- Contract and overall Union information that will arm the member at large and promote an ongoing dialog. This vital exchange of information empowers members and gives them ownership in their union. The Ambassador Committee is made up of your peers, all volunteer Board members committed to personal service, which includes visiting the sets or wherever AFTRA work is going on.
The Ambassadors are armed with folders, Contract pamphlets and AFTRA business cards with contact information so you can personally get in touch with the Ambassador if need be. The Ambassadors are escorted and introduced by the Reps of AFTRA to the Production Team in charge of the show/production. This volunteer program now allows AFTRA a broader opportunity to communicate with members. And it gives us a direct visual picture of what is happening to members while they work. In turn the working actor is given the chance to state what their needs and concerns are, to verbalize their views and feelings about the union as a whole, and how their mental and emotional comfort zone is being affected, etc.
The Ambassadors have an opportunity to see for themselves and to get the feel of what the atmosphere is like for the workers. There may be concerns that members may not take to the Reps but will open up and communicate to the Ambassador. This is not a "personal" promotion of one's self, but it is a serious undertaking, instructed and guided by the AFTRA organizing campaign under the dynamic leadership of National Director of Organizing, Phil Denniston.
As one of the Ambassadors, I can speak from first hand knowledge and share that we take notes for feedback, and bi-monthly debriefings. It is the serious business of taking the union to the member and has its place in the workings of planning strategy. AFTRA is determined to meet today's criteria and expectations in a changing high tech world. AFTRA is ready to lead in this Digital Media world of entertainment and information. This, brothers and sisters, is how important you and I are to AFTRA. Welcome to the New AFTRA! Welcome to a union that dares to educate, rejuvenate, and facilitate via its new Ambassador program, articulating the simple message on behalf of the National and Local leadership: "You have a concern? Not to worry - you have an Ambassador at AFTRA."
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