A Letter from L.A. President Jane Austin

My Fellow Brothers and Sisters,

As we approach the end of 2018 and prepare for the holidays, I wish to express my greatest thanks to all SAG-AFTRA L.A. members for making this another accomplished year to be proud of. A record number of you diligently attended our recent wages and working conditions meetings to share what aspects of the Commercials Contracts are most important to you. This is such an important member responsibility and significantly contributes to the success of our negotiating teams.

On a more solemn note, my thoughts and prayers go out to all our union brothers and sisters affected by the wildfires afflicting California, my home state. Profound thanks to the firefighters and first responders who heroically saved lives in our community. The Motion Picture & Television Fund is offering financial assistance and support. They can be reached at (323) 634-3888. Additionally, the SAG-AFTRA Foundation and SAG-AFTRA Motion Picture Players Welfare Fund have a disaster relief fund for impacted SAG-AFTRA members and their families. For more information, visit ActorsFund.org/GetHelp or call (323) 933-8244, ext. 455. Both funds are also accepting monetary donations.

Circling back to the accomplishments of the year, I must applaud the new Stunt Coordinator Standards Eligibility Process, scheduled to launch in 2020. This marks the first-ever professional standards in stunts by allowing prospective and established stunt coordinators to apply for inclusion in a vetted SAG-AFTRA online registry. While this is not a qualification process, we hope it initiates a baseline standard for coordinators that leads to safer sets. The program will also include a volunteer mentoring and apprentice stunt coordinator opportunity.

This year also gave SAG-AFTRA the opportunity to strengthen our leadership in the commercials industry. Bartle Bogle Hegarty, a company signed to the SAG-AFTRA Commercials Contracts for almost 20 years, is refusing to honor its legal obligations and is shooting nonunion. I cannot express my gratitude and awe of the nearly 1,000 fellow union members who joined SAG-AFTRA leadership on the front lines of this strike, rallying in front of the BBH Los Angeles office in September. We demonstrated that we are united in our efforts to keep commercials union, and I implore all of you to maintain that same energy for future actions.

A special shout-out to our background actor community that has been reaping the benefits derived from California’s new tax incentives and the subsequent increase of production in Los Angeles. Union background actors’ employment has increased 22.4 percent since the 2014 incentives went into effect, and I can only hope that sets a growing trend, and one day all our background actors can be employed.

Finally, I’d like to wish every Los Angeles Local member a safe and prosperous holiday season. This year has proven we have so much to be thankful for and reminds us to stand strong together. Let’s bring that attitude with us into the next year and one-up our past successes. Have a joyous holiday season SAG-AFTRA Los Angeles family!