National Board Member Report

My Fellow Twin Cities Local Members,

For the past seven years, it has been my honor to serve as the Twin Cities representative to SAG-AFTRA’s National Board. The National Board is composed of proportional representatives from all of our union’s locals. It directs the union’s activities on matters of national importance. We ratify contracts, act as the rule-making body for union policy and help to determine the vision for our union. We also, along with other members at large, serve on various national committees; currently I serve on seven committees and occasionally serve on negotiation committees for our contracts, representing member’s concerns during negotiations. In my role on the Executive Committee, we review contracts for our broadcasting units across the country, which then move to the National Board to be voted on for final approval.

On the National Board, I not only focus on what is right for the union as a whole, but give my input on how policy affects locals similar to the Twin Cities that have their own unique needs within the national union. In addition to my role on the National Board, I also serve as a Twin Cities delegate to the biennial SAG-AFTRA national conventions, one of which was held this past October.

In 2019, we had some wonderful accomplishments on the National Board. We oversaw the negotiation and later ratified the new three-year Commercials Contracts, which provided solid increases to scale, in addition to creating a new alternative compensation model that provides advertisers more flexibility while still affording our members strong protections.

In July, we ratified a contract with Netflix. This first-of-its-kind contract with a streaming service includes performance capture as covered work and coverage of dubbing, a growing field of work which applies to Netflix’s foreign-language, live-action and animated motion pictures dubbed into English.

We also worked to make sets and auditions safer by ratifying new rules governing stunt coordinators and audition locations.

Recently I attended the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas as a member of our newly constituted national Innovation and New Technology Committee. Our committee and other SAG-AFTRA representatives joined other labor leaders to discuss the impact of technology on the future of our work at a Labor Innovation & Technology Summit. In the future, I will share our initial findings.

Best to you in the new year!

Cheers,

Randal Berger