AFTRA Deal Approved This Week Establishes New Media Residuals For Actors

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.laborradio.org/node/8961

On Tuesday the American Federation of Radio and Television Artists accepted a contract proposal from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. Jesse Russell reports.

AFTRA is the second largest union representing actors behind the Screen Actor’s Guild. Under the new agreement establishes the ground work for residual payments based on new media; including Internet and cell phone technology. SAG opposes the deal with AFTRA, saying the new media language does not go far enough. The Guild had encouraged AFTRA members to vote down the contract. Screen Actors Guild President Alan Rosenberg said the contract will determine survival of acting as a profession:

: That’s what’s at stake here. The survival of the acting profession, and the survival of the Screen Actors Guild.

After AFTRA approved the contract the AMPTP set an August 15 deadline for SAG to approve the contract. If not, the producers are threatening to eliminate retroactive raises back to June 30 when the contract expired.

[villager]

1. The SAG folks ain't too happy:

http://btlnews.com/blog/archives/166