SAG Kids Need to Remember

It is never a good idea to 'talk down' to kids, especially the working kids who are full contributing members of Screen Actors Guild. Union politics have an impact on our young people, too. Parents, who are surely and correctly involved with their children's careers, need to pay close attention to campaign material because, as history proves, unwanted political fallout can literally destroy young people's careers. This election, where all of the Board seats are up for election, is especially important. Don't kid yourself. There is a difference between the two major slates. Let me explain why.

The same people who talked former SAG President Williams Daniels into running the first time (when he admitted that he knew next to nothing about the union) are part of the slate that opposes Melissa Gilbert's supporters. They are rightly considered radicals. Their negative politics are tearing the Guild apart. You will remember that they started out as The Performers Alliance, then changed to Actors Moving Forward, then Actors Rights Organization, and now they're known as The Leadership Coalition. It speaks volumes that they can't even maintain their identity. They don't want you to know who they are and what they've done.

The current President of AFTRA, John Connelly, abandoned them and their politics. So did our friend Tom LaGrua (he headed the successful Theatrical Negotiation Team that brought in the solid Theatrical/Television contract) and so, too, did Tess Harper, one of the most vocal people on the Dale Scholarship Committee (which has approved nearly forty scholarships for working kids who grew up in the Business).

Politics is always a messy business, but these folks from the PA/AMF/ARO and now The Leadership Coalition took gutter politics to a new low, especially in their attitude toward the Guild's children.

The Commercials Strike was the longest in Guild history, and most labor leaders will tell you it was completely unnecessary and has literally ruined commercial production in Hollywood which is down 13.5% no matter how you "spin it."

Commercials have always been the door through which children entered the Industry, and when your career as a kid can be measured in months, that six-month job action was really costly. Melissa Gilbert's opponents created those picket lines and many of you parents can well remember the taunts and the jeers directed at children who were legally going out on non-union auditions. Even worse, the program that allowed "volunteers" who put in 80 hours on the phones or on the picket lines to become full voting members of SAG specifically barred children under eighteen from participating! Remember that, parents. Also remember that none of Melissa's supporters crossed a picket line and we did our time on the phone banks and job actions. But we don't pretend that carrying a picket sign turns you into a union leader.

Then the Wm. Daniels political supporters on the infamous MARC Committee (disbanded since Melissa became President) set about punishing children…non-union kids mostly…who legally and without any connection to SAG…went out on commercial auditions as the Law plainly permits. These hearings were ugly, and I made it my business to show up at as many as possible to remind the MARC folks that children are not free agents, and that punishing children for a failed Commercials Strike was the height of hypocrisy.

Children do not have the power to disobey, yet the old leadership of the Guild tried to punish them anyway. It's one thing to punish Tiger Woods…but kids???

The repercussions of this misbegotten Strike are still with us, and the very same people who deliberately took the union members out to the sidewalks in a nasty bid to prove their self-worth now want your vote and…this is crucial…the Commercials Contract is up for negotiation in April 2003. Do you really want these same folks bargaining for your child? Kids, Parents, you must vote them out of the Boardroom. Hundreds of millions of dollars were lost, young careers were ruined, our Health and Pension plans were thoughtlessly devastated, and the Industry itself was forever damaged.

You should know, fellow members, that it took 13 months…almost four hundred days…before William Daniels even found the time to meet with the Young Performers Committee. Why? Because his "handlers" simply don't care much about children in the Guild and they didn't permit the meeting. They don't care about Parents or Working Kids because they're too busy puffing themselves up, and their actions prove it.

The most terrible aspect of this impending election is that the same people, who have for years been roadblocks to reasonable progress in legislation and our relationship with Talent Agents, are now acting as if they have something positive to offer. What is it they are FOR?

Are they FOR another expensive and wholly unnecessary re-election? That cost the Guild a pretty penny. Another commercials strike? More bad behavior in the boardroom (you have to see it to believe it)? Support for Trade Sanctions for an American business that exports far more than it imports? Another witch hunt against children through the MARC Committee? Remember that these folks draw their political power from people who don't even have agents!!! That's why the ATA was voted down.

Even when they LOSE these folks won't go away. Some of these folks can't get elected in their own right yet they run and run and run again. Some of these folks have spent YEARS on the Board ruining the reputation of Screen Actors Guild and they STILL won't quit.

Valerie Harper, the hand-chosen successor of Bill Daniels who was crushed by Melissa in the 2nd presidential election…the same Valerie Harper who couldn't be bothered to show up at Board meetings while her Broadway co-star made every meeting…THAT Valerie Harper is running AGAIN…and so are William Daniels AND his wife who were named as Board Replacements at the same time Melissa Gilbert's Board Replacement, Vivicca Whitsett, was passed over (a deliberate insult to both the President and a woman of color) and a person "acceptable" to the rogue Hollywood Board was seated in Melissa's place.

Those of you who know me understand that, after eight years where I didn't seek political office within Screen Actors Guild, things must be pretty important for me to put myself on the ballot. Here is the over-riding reality as it relates to working kids who are members of Screen Actors Guild: More than half of the people running against Melissa and her slate are actively hostile to kids in Screen Actors Guild and several have, in secret, voted AGAINST the best interests of working children. Too many of these people are the very reason we are in such dire straights in the first place. Again I remind you: they prevented non-union kids from participating in the "volunteer program" then punished non-union kids after the Strike.

This is the "Let's Burn Down the Business" crowd who dithered around on the Governance Plan that finally reduces the size of the Board (and never passed it during their reign of terror), who brought down the ATA Franchised Agents agreement, who call children "scabs," who have the nerve to say that those who disagree with them are traitors, who have lost the respect of America's labor unions, and who won't even pay attention to the clearly expressed votes of the membership if it doesn't suit them (remember the re-election?). They don't want to help you. They want to keep themselves and their cronies in Power.

If you still doubt me, consider this: The Governance Plan that produced this election to cut down the size of the National Board, has a unique little twist you won't believe. The Hollywood Board, alone among the three divisions, will actually INCREASE in size!!! After Hollywood's 32 Board seats are filled the next 23 candidates will, according to their vote totals, be allowed to serve as Board members for the Hollywood Local Board!

Look, our Kids need uniform national work rules. They need more and better education and respect at their home schools and credit for their Independent Studies. They need permanent Transition Programs to help them move from young professional status into adulthood. Parents deserve compensation for the hours they spend on sets. They need a voice and they need to be heard. Voting as a bloc gives our young members the power they deserve. Make no mistake, my friends, that when it comes to the power of our children who are an unappreciated part of the Industry, we matter. When the rules were bent to force a reelection it was our kids, voting as one, who made all the difference in the outcome. Please give your Vote to the people who support Melissa Gilbert's Presidency, the Restore Respect slate, and let's get on with the business of running a kid-friendly union.

Working SAG kids and their families need to understand that the people who have finally stopped the growing disaster that was SAG just one year ago will best serve their professional interests. Please visit these two sites and see for yourself where we stand:

In short, it's time for a Clean Sweep…and that's the subject of my next election message, a Clean Sweep.

Paul Petersen,
Board Candidate #30 on your ballot