Message from Your National Board Representative

In the ever-changing world in which we find ourselves as both humans and artists, I’d like to state that I am so proud of my union right now. With the release of the Sexual Harassment Code of Conduct and the Four Pillars of Change Initiative, SAG-AFTRA has taken the lead in defining what is acceptable in the workplace and has taken a collective approach to deal with safety on the set in all forms. To quote President Gabrielle Carteris, “This initiative gives members a clear understanding of their workplace rights and provides reliable guidance for members to navigate the unique environments of the entertainment, music and media industries.” Keep posted with emails, the website and messages from your National and Local boards. Specific hotline numbers, referral resources, member-to-member support and guidance are all coming your way. SAG-AFTRA has a practical plan and not just rhetoric on the issue. 

Good news in our efforts to increase union work for our members. We have new regional commercials rates to enable the smaller advertiser to use our members. It gives us a chance to compete for the jobs in our local market and recapture our commercial work. We are just rolling this out in Arizona and soon in Utah. We have had a preliminary meeting with agents and casting directors, and we are going to show and explain it to you at our Arizona-Utah Local membership meetings. Utah’s will be on March 10 in Salt Lake City and Arizona’s in Phoenix on April 28. Do your best to attend these meetings so you can be informed and up to date. We will be rolling it out to industry partners (advertisers, producers, etc.) as well. If you have questions, you can speak with your agents, board members or national office.

We had a great night of camaraderie, friendship and celebration of our members at our local viewing party of the SAG Awards. Our turnout was fabulous and a successful night was brought to you through the efforts of each and every Local Board member who participated in the work and brought you all the wonderful prizes. 

We are calling on all of you to be courageous and active in our efforts to expand our membership, so we as artists and media professionals have a unified voice to expand and protect our work. We need to be able to explain to pre-members across all generations the advantages and protections of union membership in pursuing a career path. We all can remember why we joined and the elation of how we were able to get our cards right here in our “right-to-work” states. We are planning more events to get together for more education, training and guidance for our members to expand our work opportunities. Please join us when you can and show willingness to help our other members. We are union!

Margie Ghigo, National Board
SAG-AFTRA Arizona-Utah Local