Screen Actors Guild, AFTRA Members Ratify New Non-Broadcast/Industrial Contracts

Los Angeles (June 8, 2011) - Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists announced today that members have approved three-year successor agreements to the AFTRA National Code of Fair Practice for Non Broadcast/Industrial/Educational Recorded Material and the SAG Industrial and Educational Contract.

Overall, the memberships of SAG and AFTRA voted 95 percent to 5 percent in favor of the new agreement.

AFTRA Chief Negotiator and Assistant National Executive Director Mathis L. Dunn, Jr., said, “It is our belief that this new agreement is a win-win situation:  it provides opportunities for  more producers to create high-quality, polished productions by employing AFTRA’s professional performers, and enable us to increase union work opportunities for our members.”

“The voting results show SAG and AFTRA members embrace the gains being delivered by this agreement,” said SAG Deputy National Executive Director for Contracts Ray Rodriguez. “We expect this contract will also provide a foundation for increasing the number of non-broadcast, industrial and educational productions, providing additional work for our members.”

The agreements are effective retroactive to May 1, 2011 and will continue through April 30, 2014, and call for all minimum rates to be increased by 2 percent at the start of the contract and by another 2 percent effective November 1, 2012, as well as a 0.2-percent increase in total contributions to the SAG-Producers Pension and Health Plans and the AFTRA Health and Retirement Funds. Specific language has also been added to require a 0.3-percent contribution to the AFTRA-Industry Cooperative Fund. In addition, programming for new media is defined and specifically covered.

To more clearly reflect the type of work produced under these agreements, the contracts have been renamed the AFTRA National Code of Fair Practice for Corporate/Educational Recorded Material and the Producers-Screen Actors Guild 2011 Codified Corporate/Educational & Non-Broadcast Contract

The agreement was negotiated by the Joint SAG and AFTRA Negotiating Committee. On April 25, the National Administrative Committee of AFTRA approved the agreement and recommended member ratification. At its meeting on April 30, the Screen Actors Guild National Board of Directors took the same action.

Ballots were mailed May 9 to 136,585 eligible SAG and AFTRA members, and the deadline for returning them was June 8. The vote represented a 22 percent return in ballots among members. The final vote was certified by Integrity Voting Systems, an impartial election service based in Everett, Washington