A Letter from Your SFNC President

My Fellow SF-NorCal Members, 

I hope you are all doing well and found creative ways to celebrate the July Fourth weekend! 

You probably have read the news that SAG-AFTRA reached an agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers on June 11 and the SAG-AFTRA National Board approved the tentative agreement by a super majority of 67.61% to 32.39%. It is now up to the membership to ratify this three-year contract. As your San Francisco-Northern California president, I am endorsing a YES vote on these contracts.
 
In the middle of a global pandemic, at a time of economic upheaval and dramatic declines in industry revenue, we were able to secure huge gains. The $318 million that will be provided by this contract is meaningful in areas like wages and benefits for all members. That’s real dollars in members’ pockets.

Our negotiators stayed focused on the future. Our team used their leverage to build up streaming residuals and position us where the growth and the money are. Getting a 26% increase in fixed streaming residuals over the first three years is terrific, and what our members were asking for. This is where the work is going and we need to make sure our money follows. This truly is a forward-thinking contract! 

SF-NorCal Local members will have a specific gain in the area of background. The six West Coast background zones (two of which are in our local!) gained an extra covered position beginning in the second year. We anticipate this will easily translate into hundreds of additional background jobs for our members, based on historic background employment patterns in our local. 

An important item to me is knowing that our pension and health plans stay strong. The projected funding increase of $97 million to the benefit plans for the next three years includes a $54 million increase for the health plan, which is much needed and very meaningful to all our members — performers working under all contracts as well as broadcasters. 

There are many more important gains in the contract highlighted in the 2020 TV/Theatrical Referendum that you can find at sagaftra.org/contracts2020. And I encourage everyone to attend an online informational meeting to discuss details of the contract on Tuesday, July 14 at 2 p.m. PDT. Look for an invitation in your inbox and please register here.

All eligible members were mailed a postcard on July 1 with PIN number and instructions on how to vote online or how to request a paper ballot. If you don’t have your PIN, you may retrieve it at the voting website. Whether submitted online or by mail, ballots must be received by 5 p.m. PDT on Wednesday, July 22, 2020. 

I will be voting YES on this landmark contract, and I hope you will join me with your YES vote! 

In solidarity, 

Kathryn Howell 
President, San Francisco-Northern California Local