Merger. It Happened! Now What?

We talked about it for years…even attempted it a couple of times. But this time was different. More than 80 percent of both unions voted to support merger.  We are now SAG-AFTRA!What do we do with our elected boards and councils now that they have doubled in size? What about the office? What about my pension? What about my dues? What about my union?

In terms of the day-to-day running of the newly created Denver Local, not much will be different than it was before. Since the Colorado SAG Branch and the Denver AFTRA Local met for years as one body, any changes in operations will be minimal. The office and staff will remain the same. Until the next elections, the local SAG president and local AFTRA president are now co-presidents. But we have always functioned that way in Colorado. One month the Colorado SAG president ran the board meeting, the next month the AFTRA Board president would run the meeting. That won't change. We were one of the few Branches/Locals that operated jointly. Currently, all of the new Locals are working to write their own Local constitutions. This won't be too difficult for Denver either. We'll take the best from the previous AFTRA Constitution & By-Laws and combine it with the best parts of the previous SAG Rules of Procedure and come up with a document everyone should be able to work with. I have just read these “legacy” documents, and for the most part, they are quite similar. Combining them will be easy.

There are some changes surrounding merger that I hope you will notice: greater organizing potential, additional member benefits, renewed sense of solidarity and a stronger voice in the labor movement.

House Bill 1286, the new film incentive legislation, passed both houses of the legislature and was signed into law by the governor. This is a first, small step in the right direction and should start the process of putting many actors and others in the film industry back to work. HB 1286 will create new jobs and bring new money to Colorado. 

And now that the Colorado film incentive has passed, the City and County of Denver is working on its own version of a film incentive. It seems like it is a bit contagious! Good things are happening here. Thank you to all to those who helped; even those who helped by keeping their fingers crossed and always keeping the faith.
Merger and film incentives in just three short months — what a year so far!

John Singer
Co-President, SAG-AFTRA Denver Local