This experience drove a career choice and sense of obligation to work for, and give back to, one of the labor unions that made it possible for me to have the kind of education and opportunities that relatively few of my race and gender, at the time, could enjoy.

The experience of working on behalf of AFTRA members over the past 27 years—negotiating dozens of contracts on behalf of performers across almost every area of the entertainment and media industries—has only cemented my belief in the power, purpose, and need for strong and responsible collective bargaining for performers. Having disclosed this bias, it is time to turn to cold, unbiased fact.

You have been mailed a ballot to vote yes or no on the AFTRA Primetime Exhibit A contract. That vote must be based upon understanding the deal on its merits, without interference from disinformation and politics. This vote is not about institutional politics—it’s about, and for, you and your families.

Your negotiating committee was charged with the legal obligation and responsibility to negotiate the best contract possible. These men and women, every one a performer like you, did so. They unanimously recommend that you, their fellow union members, ratify that contract. The AFTRA National Board, all volunteer elected members who also have a legal and fiduciary obligation to every one of you, by a 91% approval vote recommend the contract to their fellow union members. In contrast, representatives of outside organizations (whether management or union) have no such legal or fiduciary obligation to you. They may choose to act in a manner that may be irresponsible or outright harmful to your interests as AFTRA members and whether it may be motivated by inexperience, politics, or some other agenda.

Your negotiating committee and your National Board, on the other hand, are constrained legally and morally to keep your interests first and be honest with you… which they have.

On its merits, the new contract increases minimums for every category of performer by 3.5%, 3.0%, and 3.5%—over 10% compounded over three years. These increases exceed those negotiated by the WGA following a 100-day strike—the WGA base rates for network primetime TV were increased by 3.0% per year. In keeping with the priorities expressed by members before negotiations, the new contract will also increase the major role minimum (“top of the show”) by an immediate 6.0% on July 1, reaching 13.0% over today’s rate by July 2010. Overtime money break for 3-day players is increased for the first time since 1998. The residual ceiling for network re-runs will increase by two 2.5% increases in this contract, as compared to the single 2.0% bump negotiated in 2005. The schedule break amount for freelance performers in TV was increased from $4,400 to $4,650—the first increase since 2000. In other words, all of these increases are real, in-hand money for the performers who work this contract.

The terms for New Media move your contract from stage one (little or no confirmed jurisdiction or residuals in New Media) to stage two (an interim structure to cover the next three years as New Media evolves) in order to position union members for stage three: negotiating a more permanent structure for New Media based on real information about the true economics of the business.

No contract is ever perfect. But any honest negotiator with experience in this industry will tell you that what your negotiating committee secured on your behalf is not only a solid deal, but an impressive one.

Whether the attempts by a sister union to interfere in the ratification of your contract are motivated by politics, fear, naïveté, inexperience, or the intention to do harm to your union, there is an undeniable reality: it is a disgrace to any observer who believes in the integrity and importance of the labor movement and your rights as union members. It is appalling for anyone who truly cares about the welfare of AFTRA members to witness. It is certainly a disservice to every AFTRA member. And the most shameful part of this negative campaign is the attempt to mislead you about the nature of the choice before you.

The myth has been spread that if you turn down your contract, it does not mean a strike. That is the real fear-based argument: those campaigning so hard to reject your contract are shouting to you and the world —including management—that you can reject this contract and do so without making a commitment to strike. Any experienced labor negotiator knows better. The notion that one can reject a hard fought contract, which exceeds industry “pattern,” without backing it up with the courage of your convictions, is absurd. In other words, why would any employer, after hearing such rhetoric, feel compelled to provide more than the above-pattern improvements already extracted from them simply because one “asks”?

As is true in every negotiation in every industry, it is the members’ choice to approve or reject the negotiated agreement. Members have the choice to ignore the unanimous recommendation of the negotiation committee and the overwhelming recommendation of the National Board, and instead direct the Negotiating Committee to go back and “ask for more.” And then what?

Without the real commitment to initiate, wage, and sustain a strike after turning down a package of solid improvements, there is no strategy—or at least no smart one. I empathize strongly with the members I’ve spoken with who have expressed an emotional desire to turn back the clock. But it is time to be real, without wistful emotion: the suggestion that rejecting your contract will somehow heal broken bonds is merely a ploy to manipulate the understandable emotions of performers, and ignores the stark and unprecedented reality of the anti-AFTRA campaign that has all but disintegrated the trust upon which joint bargaining is based. Your elected leadership maintains the hope that the common trust once shared between AFTRA and SAG will be restored, but it isn’t going to happen any time soon.

In the interim, this contract is before you. Every member should read the facts of the deal, ask questions on any point they find unclear, discuss and debate the merits without personal rancor or prejudice, and then make his or her choice. Your union stands by the merits of this contract. Your union must follow the choice you make whether to approve the contract or engage in a strike. Either way, it is your right as an AFTRA member to make your decision in an informed manner, and it is the obligation of all others to have the honesty and integrity to stand down, tend to their business, and let you make an informed decision in peace.

Sincerely,

Kim Roberts Hedgpeth
National Executive Director

www.aftra.com