Nevada Background Performers: 20 Years of Nevada SAG Jurisdiction

SAG-AFTRA Co-Presidents Ken Howard and Roberta Reardon (front), with National Executive Vice President Ned Vaughn and National Board member Rebecca Damon at the first meeting of the SAG-AFTRA National Board on May 19.

by Art Lynch

It will be 20 years this summer since the Screen Actors Guild took over the jurisdiction of what I describe as the failed Screen Extras Guild. As long-time locals will remember, Nevada was the home of a very strong and aggressive chapter of the Screen Extras Guild, and fought for SAG to pick up the ball and run with it.

A merger attempt failed, so at the time the board had to take emergency action to claim jurisdiction in SEG zones. Since that time, the battle with management has been to bring pay and numbers of union background actors on the sets back up to levels that existed under SEG, and secondarily under levels that exist in New York.

New York was not SEG, as background in New York was already under SAG jurisdiction. Many actors in New York worked all contracts, with little stigma attached to being an extra. Actors sought any work to earn money under contract (and thus P&H), and to work in the trade.

In Nevada, we have fought to expand the zone. In the beginning, the zone was limited to the then-much smaller Las Vegas city limits, excluding the Strip, the airport and the university, where much of past shooting occurred. During the 2009 national negotiation, SAG was finally able to increase the zone by using a fixed radius from the courthouse downtown. This negotiated expansion increased the zone to now include most of the greater Las Vegas community and greatly increased the need for background performers.

Nevada was the last issue on the table at those negotiations, with our expansion the last “victory” for SAG’s contract. We have to thank those who negotiated on your behalf for every hour’s work that is outside the Strip and the traditional Las Vegas city limits.

Other issues under discussion by the National Background Committee are expansion of numbers on the set, increased pay and compensation, increased legal protections, fighting paid call services and Internet listing services, the expansion of synthetic thespians replacing background actors, fair practices in calling people to work from “the sheets,” and various alleged discrimination issues.

If you wish to have your voice heard on contract issues or in preparation for the next round of contract talks, please contact Nevada Local President Barbara Grant and ask to be a part of the next local Wages and Working Conditions Committee discussions. They are open to all active Nevada members in good standing.

This item was originally featured in the October 2012 local newsletter.