SAG condemns guild quitters Board cracks down on 'fi-core' (political activities)

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117965548.html?categoryid=13&cs=1&query=SAG

SAG condemns guild quitters
Board cracks down on 'fi-core'
By DAVE MCNARY

Todd Amorde
Amorde
SAG's going to start slamming the door on thesps who quit the union.

Leaders of the Screen Actors Guild are toughening up the guild's policy on how it treats members who file for "financial core" status. Members who go "fi-core" resign their SAG membership and withhold the dues spent by SAG on political activities but can still work on union jobs.

At a weekend membership meeting, national exec director Doug Allen and national director of organizing Todd Amorde indicated that those who do go "fi-core" generally won't be allowed back into SAG. That disclosure prompted enthusiastic reaction from the 500 SAG members in attendance at the Sportsmen's Lodge in Studio City.

"It's going to be quite a bit more difficult to get back in, because resigning from the union is a conscious decision," Amorde told Daily Variety. "It's been sort of a don't-ask-don't-tell policy, but the board of directors has given us a directive to be much more stringent."

Amorde said the new policy's part of a larger SAG initiative to improve organizing of non-union work and to become the authoritative source on the implications of going fi-core. (SAG doesn't disclose how many members have done so.)

"What we're going to stress is that it may be your right under federal law to go fi-core, but it's not a good idea," he added.

FULL story at link.