Holiday Message from Your Local President

Happy Holidays to all our union brothers and sisters.

As 2017 comes to a close and the holidays are upon us, I wanted to reach out and briefly reflect back on last year. The Michigan Local hosted many great events, including:

• Our SAG Awards party last January.
• Coffee connections in both Southeast Michigan and Grand Rapids. 
• A celebration of Dr. Seuss’ birthday with a Detroit grade school that included our members reading The Cat in the Hat to the children. 
• Our annual membership meeting in April, which included community outreach by volunteering at Forgotten Harvest. 
• Three voiceover workshops with Paul Liberti (back by popular demand and, as always, giving such good instruction to our members).

Effective in September, the new Michigan Local Board was seated and is as follows:

National Board member: Peter Tocco

Local President: Eric Wydra

First Vice President: Jo-Jo Shutty-MacGregor

Second Vice President: Phil Elam

Secretary: Shane Carson

Board members:

Sonya A. Avakian
PJ Edwards
Patty Handysides
Jacqua Scott

I would like to offer a personal and heartfelt thanks to the board. These are volunteer positions; each of them gives freely of their time and talents in order to serve and benefit SAG-AFTRA Michigan Local members.

I am very excited to announce that we recently passed a Regional Commercials Code for commercials made in Michigan and played in Michigan and surrounding states. It will roll out over the coming weeks and months. The hope is that many of the commercials currently made using non-union talent will decide to use the Regional Code and employ SAG-AFTRA members. Stay tuned for more details on the code after the holidays and find out how you can get involved spreading the word. If you are particularly interested in helping to educate non-union producers about the code, contact me at michigan.president@sagaftra.org.

Marcia Fishman. Photos by Maury Phillips

Marcia Fishman, the director of locals administration who has been working with us here in Michigan for many years, is retiring at the end of December. I personally want to thank her for everything she has done for SAG-AFTRA members in Michigan and the union as a whole. She is an incredibly talented and creative person and has done so much (mostly behind the scenes) to benefit so many. Since merger, Marcia has been on the ground here in Detroit, assisting the staff in Chicago with the administration needs of the Michigan Local. The search is underway for her replacement. That person will most likely be based out of Chicago.  

Regardless, your Michigan Board is still here and we will continue to serve you locally with the resources out of SAG-AFTRA’s Chicago office. Additionally, broadcast business representative Jayne Bower is based out of Southeast Michigan. I will send a notice out to the membership once Marcia’s replacement has been hired.

Finally, I asked Peter Tocco, our National Board member, to say a few words about Marcia on her retirement (see below).

Here is to a happy, healthy 2018!

In solidarity,

Eric Wydra
Michigan Local President

This item was originally featured in the December 2017 local newsletter.