Dear Member,
Please read the following important notice regarding GAP Digital in Wheaton, IL:
SAG-AFTRA has been actively engaged in organizing in the area of audiobooks for the last several years. In fact the union has organized more than 30 audiobook producers and publishers since 2008, including the largest of the independent audiobook publishers across the country.
GAP Digital approached SAG-AFTRA to bargain an audiobook agreement, but negotiations broke down when GAP declared that it only wanted the collective bargaining agreement to apply in limited circumstances. The company negotiator, in a written communication to SAG-AFTRA Audiobook staff, stated there was "zero upside" to a contract with SAG-AFTRA that applied to all of their audiobook productions.
The company responded to advisories that SAG-AFTRA staff would have no choice but to seek a "no contract, no work" order against GAP Digital with a refusal to engage in further dialogue.
As such, with the unanimous support of the SAG-AFTRA Audiobook Steering Committee, and in consultation with professional narrators across the country, the Executive Committee of the National Board of Directors has voted unanimously to issue a “no contract, no work” order against GAP Digital.
Therefore SAG-AFTRA members are hereby informed that no member may accept work as an audiobook narrator for GAP Digital until such time as GAP becomes signatory to a SAG-AFTRA agreement, and that violation of such order may result in disciplinary action in accordance with the SAG-AFTRA Constitution.
Actors’ Equity Association is also being asked to support SAG-AFTRA in this effort by advising its members not to accept work as audiobook narrators for GAP Digital in accordance with Article X(1)(f)(1) of the Bylaws of Actors’ Equity Association.
For questions about this notice, please contact Jane Love at jane.love@sagaftra.org or Richard Larkin at richard.larkin@sagaftra.org.
In unity,
SAG-AFTRA