As this most difficult and challenging year comes to a close and the holiday season is upon us, my thoughts are of all of you — your families, your communities and perhaps your shaken dreams.
I know some of your personal stories, and they’re heartbreaking. I’m also painfully aware that so many of us and our families have or are suffering from financial or personal loss, emotional and mental stress and physical illness due to the devastating impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. And, for that, I extend to you my most heartfelt condolences for the hardships and losses you’ve had to endure.
While the going is tough, I’m always inspired by the resiliency of our community. Maybe it’s because, as artists, our very existence demands that we be present, spontaneous and resourceful, giving us the very tools we need to ride out these difficult times. And when you add to these qualities the love and compassion shared throughout our community — as can be seen in our efforts to set right social injustice — I feel encouraged about our ability to rebuild our lives, our industry and our futures as we usher in 2021.
Truth be told, it’s not only now during the holiday season that my thoughts are with you. More than ever before, your welfare has been front and center with me since the pandemic began. From day one, when COVID-19 shut us down, SAG-AFTRA leadership and staff from the 25 locals across the country came together and went into overdrive to come up with strategies to help sustain our membership.
I’d like to provide you with a recap and some resource links to a few of the most important strategies implemented over the past 10 months, developments that continue to serve us as we seek a safe way forward. Please access the resources available to you should you need them. There is no shame in reaching out for help.
At the end of this list is a gift of sorts, one born out of our union’s compassion for the needs of our members, a gift that will serve us not only now but also into the future as we continue to create and make manifest our dreams. Read on to find out!
Here’s my recap with links of resources. SAG-AFTRA …
- Collaborates with sister unions, leading industry professionals, epidemiologists and scientists to establish the safest working conditions possible so that we can get back to work and stay there. Safety documents can be found here.
- Offers dues payment options to help relieve financial stress on members.
- Gets L.A. government officials to recognize SAG-AFTRA’s Residuals Department as an essential service so that our entire membership will continue to receive timely residual income when they may need it most.
- Leadership, staff and attorneys continue to work with Congress to ensure that mixed-income earners like us are accounted for in relief package legislation like what passed this week.
- Negotiated a successful waiver agreement between SAG-AFTRA and AEA, one which allows our sister union and their members (many of whom are also SAG-AFTRA members) to work within our jurisdiction during the time of the pandemic to help them to be more sustainable. For details on this waiver agreement please click here.
- Offers events, panels and webinars weekly on myriad topics, ranging from equity in our workplace to how-to programming, helping our members to navigate things like sound online auditioning and filming practices. Many are archived for your convenience, just visit sagaftra.org/videos.
- Collaborated with our partner the SAG-AFTRA Foundation, which has adapted its entire platform to online programming in order to serve our members across the globe. There are dozens of panels, webinars and workshops to keep you informed, entertained and educated on how to sustain or improve your skills while at home! Opt in to receive SAG-AFTRA Foundation notices here.
- Worked on the local level with the Colorado AFL-CIO on several different legislative bills in support of fair and equitable legislation around COVID relief and unemployment. Most recently passed was Senate Bill 20B-001, a multimillion dollar relief package that put $7.5 million toward culture and the arts. It was a huge win and giant first step in gaining recognition for the needs of our community during this crisis.
And kudos to SAG-AFTRA members who, in the middle of the pandemic, stepped up in record numbers in July and voted up the 2020 TV/Theatrical Contract. We gained meaningful wage increases, improvements to funding for the benefit plans and significantly improved residuals for streaming video. During this time of isolation, the gains in streaming have confirmed the merits of our forward-thinking negotiating team.
The contract also included new protections governing nudity, simulated sex scenes and sexual harassment. In addition to enforcement on the set, SAG-AFTRA continues to develop protocols for the most effective handling of claims made by members who have been subject to harassment of this nature. If you or anyone you know needs support and has a sexual harassment issue or claim to file, please visit this link as a starting point to resources within the SAG-AFTRA community.
For assistance and a list of resources in our area, please visit the SAG-AFTRA Colorado Local resource page, which covers both Colorado and Wyoming at sagaftra.org/colorado.
- General resources: https://www.sagaftra.org/colorado-local-covid-19-resources
- COVID-19 services and relief: https://www.sagaftra.org/colorado-local-covid-19-resources
- Colorado Unemployment: https://cdle.colorado.gov/unemployment
- Wyoming unemployment: http://wyomingworkforce.org/workers/ui/
And now, as promised, the gift that SAG-AFTRA leadership and staff have bestowed upon us! After listening carefully to the needs of our members during this pandemic, our Contracts Department, with support from staff and leadership around the country, drafted the Micro-Budget Project Agreement. The basic parameters are:
- The Micro-Budget is designed to provide a streamlined signatory process for independent producers, the hyphenated types, i.e., member-producers.
- It’s for entertainment content that would typically sign a New Media Agreement or the Short Project or Student Film agreements, and you simply register online!
- For projects with budgets of $20,000 or less per picture or per episode.
For more information and to get started on your project today, please click here.
If you’ve made it this far, thank you for taking the time to engage with me. I hope you have found this information to be helpful and reassuring. Now more than ever, SAG-AFTRA’s staff and leadership are committed to protecting and advocating for the rights, needs and dignity of our members. We are global leaders and are instrumental in ensuring that our industry will remain viable, sustainable and productive, despite the inevitable changes for years to come. While we have a long road ahead of us, our union’s strength comes from our collective will to continue to tackle the issues that challenge our dreams and survival head on.
I’ve missed seeing all of you at local events, meetings and on the set, and look forward to the day when we can once again breathe the same air. Until that time, please stay tuned for online opportunities to engage with members in the local in 2021. And please take care of yourselves and each other by wearing masks and practicing social distancing.
I wish you all peace and good will, and may the true spirit of this season cut through the challenges we face so that we can find faith in humanity to steer us to a brighter, healthier future.
Happy holidays and best wishes, in solidarity and with love …
Sheila Ivy Traister
SAG-AFTRA Colorado Local President and National Board Member
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