Merge vote flops in SAG final tally
Referendum draws record ballots
Voters at SAG defeated a referendum on the merger by 52% to 46%, according to figures released Thursday by the guild. To win, the measure would have had to pass by 60% or more of the members who voted. The defeat is a big blow to the leadership of both unions: They had vigorously supported the proposal.
The overthrow of the merger attempt at the hands of SAG followed by a day AFTRA's announcement that its own members approved it by a 67% vote. But with SAG's thumbs down, the matter has been quashed.
Top officials at both unions had invested heavily in persuading their members to vote in the merger's favor, but there were many -- especially at SAG -- who felt that combining the two unions would weaken their individual strengths. Some SAG members also felt that their union was no place for TV and radio news staffers, singers, disc jockeys and others who, alongside daytime drama performers, are repped by AFTRA.
Some members of SAG's board of directors even formed anti-merger coalitions and held rallies to trumpet their cause.
"Nothing would have been a surprise to me," said SAG president Richard Masur after hearing the results of the vote. "I had no idea what was going to happen. I do think it's a strong statement that merger between SAG and AFTRA was not what the members of the Screen Actors Guild wanted.
"I am disappointed because I believed and continue to believe that consummation of this merger would have been in the best interests of everyone involved," Masur added.
The merger vote marks the end of a decades-long process -- initially floated in the late 1930s -- to bring together all performers and others covered by SAG and AFTRA.
"The board of directors, the staff and I, as president, will move forward to maintain the Screen Actors Guild as the most powerful, effective performers' union it can be," Masur said. "Though the future will be challenging, we will make every effort to minimize conflicts between ourselves and our sister unions."
Joint bargaining's future
Nevertheless, a statement issued by SAG after the merger defeat pointed out that the two unions' agreement to jointly negotiate contracts -- in place since 1981 -- "anticipated the eventuality of a merged union and will have to be revisited now that the merger referendum has been defeated."
SAG's national executive director, Ken Orsatti, said that, now that the membership has spoken, "We have to sit down with AFTRA and try to work out jurisdictional problems; that is going to be a top priority for both unions."
The SAG vote totals were 19,419 (46%) in favor and 21,745 (52%) against. Tellers declared 605 votes invalid. Of the 98,375 ballots sent out, 41,769 were returned, the highest number of any SAG election in almost 20 years.
Mark Carlton, a founder of Save SAG, an organization formed expressly to combat the merger, said he was "thrilled" at the turnout.
"To have 41,769 members vote on anything is a major accomplishment," he said. "It shows a renewed interest on the part of the SAG membership in the affairs of their union.
Fences to mend
"We felt it would be close," Carlton went on, describing the vote count, which he observed at SAG headquarters in Los Angeles. "It's a big victory, but there's a lot of mending of fences to be done. We were not looking to have this be a divisive issue within the Screen Actors Guild. We're looking to refocus our energies toward our contracts and toward strengthening our bargaining position in the industry."
SAG board member Lev Mailer, another vocal opponent of the proposed merger, said he was "absolutely delighted" by the vote tally Thursday. It was interesting, he said, that the referendum failed by an even larger margin than two votes in the 1980s on a merger between SAG and the Screen Extras Guild.
Considering that a victory on the merger question required a tally of least 60%, Mailer said, a favorable vote of just 46% was a poor showing for the other side.
Spin time
Mailer scoffed at a SAG statement that said SAG members were "almost evenly divided" on the merger proposal.
"They can say evenly divided, if you want to spin it that way, but I'm going to spin it the other way," Mailer said. "Even a third of the AFTRA members didn't want it. We expected their votes in favor to be in the 80 or 85 percentile, so we were very encouraged that the vote was 67%. Frankly, it's like an earthquake."
Officials at AFTRA, attending the unions' national board plenary in Universal City, took SAG's decision hard.
"While we regret the results on the SAG side, we are committed to work on new ways to cooperate with the guild for the protection and benefit of our members," said AFTRA president Shelby Scott. "It's clear that a large majority of our members want to see that happen.
"As to our own work, the principles of merger and AFTRA's restructuring -- national strength, local service and union democracy through meaningful member participation in AFTRA's efforts -- will guide us in the future."
Scott praised the efforts of AFTRA members nationwide who developed a communications network to discuss the pros and cons of the merger and which, she said, generated a voter turnout unprecedented in AFTRA's history.
