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About ten days ago, an open letter from nearly 4,000 SAG-AFTRA members was posted in support of the union's negotiating committee. The letter stressed the committee had the signed member's "trust, our support, and our power behind you now."
The letter made a lot of headlines at the time and reportedly provided a much-appreciated boost of encouragement to the union negotiators. But what you might not know is that the open letter was in response to an email that had been circulating among SAG-AFTRA members, who were being asked to pressure union leaders to make a deal with the studios.
According to multiple sources, the email was spearheaded by actors that included Brad Garrett, Kevin Zegers, his wife Jamie Field (who is an agent at CAA), Gerardo Celasco and his wife, actress Jennifer Morrison.
The letter was circulated via email for a number of days and it's not known how many responses the effort received. But at some point, the email was changed to let people know the names were going to be posted on a Change.org petition.
The email was being used in a effort to try and pressure the SAG-AFTRA committee into cutting a deal, by claiming the email showed widespread support inside the union for a quick settlement.
At the same time, stories were circulating in the entertainment trades reporting that a number of "A-list" actors had asked to speak with union negotiators, in an attempt to "move along negotiations."
It's not clear if the two efforts were directly related. But given that many of the actors in that effort are also represented by CAA, it seems unlikely that it is merely a coincidence.
However, the effort to demand a resolution to the strike backfired after a competing effort was launched to gather names for an open letter of support for the SAG-AFTRA negotiating committee. That effort gathered 4,000 names within the first 24 hours:
"We put it together quickly and started sharing the link with other captains and fellow SAG-AFTRA members last night (Wednesday). We had planned to hold it until next week to let the signatures build up. But I woke up this morning to 2,000 signatures, and then by the end of the first 24 hours we had almost 4,000. And when we heard that our Negotiating Committee had been at the table with the CEOs all day and that they were heading back into negotiations Friday, and we wanted to give them all the power and leverage we could ASAP. So we worked as fast as we could to get the letter and all the names ready to publish tonight."
Faced with that outpouring of public support, the effort to pressure union negotiators faded away for a while.
But it's worth noting that as I have been reporting out other strike-related stories tonight, I have been hearing rumors of an effort to put together a similar letter asking the negotiating team to end the strike if the decision is made on Sunday not to accept the so-called "last and final offer" presented by the studios on Saturday.
I have reached out to the various participants for comment.
Here is the text of one of the versions of the email:
PROPOSED LETTER
Dear Actor Friends and SAG Negotiating Committee,
This moment is a huge chance for unity. This is a business, not a fairytale. As we all know, in business, a negotiation means that both sides give a little and we end up somewhere in the middle together.
We have well passed a point where we need to acknowledge the crews who have all been out of work since May. We also must acknowledge the thousands of workers from businesses and industries touched by the television shows and films that are no longer in production.
Ryan Murphy shows alone employ 1,000 crew members annually, sometimes more. So imagine the accumulation of thousands and thousands of out-of-work crews who are standing by trusting that SAG is in fact negotiating reasonably with the intention of making a deal.
The purpose of a strike is to make a great deal. It is to get maximum leverage and now it's closing time and it's time to get everyone back to work.
When the WGA went on strike, the union kept its members informed in very specific and clear ways - and when the members made it clear it was time for a deal - a deal happened. We currently have no clarity on exactly what is happening in the deal points. We don't even know if we agree with the demands that are sending the CEOs away from the table.
We need clarity from the union and we need to feel emboldened to stand up and say it is time. It is time to protect the crews that protect us. It is time to get people back to work instead of losing their homes and life savings.
We have all resiliently fought for historic gains that are already on the table. We need to ask the leadership to step back to the table with a plan that presents a reasonable way forward.
This strike can not be aspirational, it must be productive and at this point, we are not gaining as much as we are harming. Part of being an excellent negotiator is not only getting great gains but knowing when it is time to stop.
In a time when world events are devastating, and our families and friend's families are often threatened by hate, we need things that bring us together. We need a way to protect our families financially, we do the crews and all of the businesses that are employed by television shows and films.
If you want to join us in asking the union for this clarity and a productive deal proposal they can share with the membership, please add your name to this letter via the link below, and feel free to share it with anyone you feel supports this sentiment.
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Exclusive: The Proposed SAG-AFTRA Strike-Breaking Letter You've Never Seen
- Details
- By Rick Ellis
