A Message From the New England Local President

Dear New England Local Members,

Summer is winding down and autumn looks exciting, with many events scheduled. I hope you all enjoyed and celebrated Labor Day! Thank you to our members who have been out on the picket lines and attending rallies for our sibling unions, especially those who attended the Greater Boston Labor Council’s Labor Day event in support of UNITE HERE and SEIU. It was a truly remarkable show of force, supporting fair wages and worker rights. Union power: When we fight, we win!

The Local enjoyed an event-packed summer. We had a new member orientation, welcoming several new members to SAG-AFTRA. The New England Conservatory Committee hosted a workshop with acting coach Bates Wilder and the NextGen Committee organized our local’s first participation in the Boston Pride for the People Parade!

SAG-AFTRA was once again a sponsor of the Roxbury International Film Festival. The festival featured several films produced in New England and starred many New England Local SAG-AFTRA members. This fall, as part of the SAG-AFTRA sponsorship, the RoxFilm Festival will collaborate on an in-person actors workshop. Details to follow.

On the calendar already for this month, and ready for you to register via sagaftra.org, are our Wednesday, Sept. 18, commercials organizing virtual event with national staff from the #AdsGoUnion campaign and our Monday, Sept. 23, online New England Conservatory with acting coach Ransford Doherty. Please register today.

In October, join us Wednesday, Oct. 9, for an in-person event at the Cathedral of St. Paul in Boston for a New England Conservatory event with Slate Casting! Our NextGen members should save Wednesday, Oct. 23, for an in-person games night to be held at the Local office in Boston.

Our local committees have also been hard at work. The New England Local Organizing Committee has been working on strategies to engage with local businesses and companies to hire our members under our easy-to-use contracts. We have a new New England Local Stunt Performers Committee, which met for the first time this summer, and the New England Local Safety Committee sponsored a very well-received CPR training at the end of August.

As you’re aware, our performer union siblings who work the Interactive Media Agreement are still on strike. The video game industry is so concentrated that the effects of this strike are not easily seen in the New England Local. However, the video game industry does have a huge impact on the entertainment industry, as video games bring in massive revenue for their producers, far above that of film and episodic productions. As you’d expect, the strike has a big impact on the performers who work the Interactive Media Agreement, who came to the same impasse with their employers as the film and episodic workers did with theirs — A.I. Click here to find out more info on the strike and how you might take action to help.

A final coming attraction: Our SAG-AFTRA New England Local Facebook page is coming! Stay tuned! We hope this new page will be a go-to destination for information, updates and events.

Thank you to our staff, Jessica Maher, Benjamin Shallop and Ellen Stoolmacher, who always go the extra mile for our members. They use their time and expertise to advise and support each committee and event and more that helps our union thrive.

Best, 
Andrea Lyman 
New England Local President