SAG protests non-union work

Guild leaders organize demonstration

By DAVE MCNARY

In a move signaling increased emphasis on organizing, SAG leaders have staged a two-hour demonstration urging members not to accept non-union work.

SAG prexy Alan Rosenberg and board members Anne-Marie Johnson, David Jolliffe and Anthony Desantis leafleted Thursday afternoon outside an audition at the Alison Horn casting agency in Hollywood for a non-union Mercedes-Benz commercial.

National director of organizing Todd Amorde noted the protest was the first such effort by SAG in several years in the Hollywood area. He indicated the guild plans to hold similar events in the future as part of an effort to devote more of its resources toward educating members about the ban on working non-union jobs.

SAG's Rule One is an internal rule which explicitly bars members from working for producers who are not signatory to SAG agreements. Guild leaders have become increasingly concerned in recent years over actors circumventing discipline under Rule One by seeking "financial core" status, under which a member resigns withholds dues spent by SAG on political activities but can still work on union jobs.

"We don't have a beef with Alison Horn," Amorde said. "We're doing this to dispel myths about Rule One and going financial core."