Mailings focus divide over union merger

With 10 days to go to before ballots head out, high-profile thesps have started lining on both sides in the recommended merger involving the Screen Stars Guild as well as the American Federation of Television & Radio Artists. On Thursday, Mike Jaeger ("MotherhoodInch), Seamus Colorado ("Castle") and "Modern Family" cast people Erection dysfunction O'Neill, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Julie Bowen and Eric Stonestreet came out in videos round the professional-merger internet.sagaftra.com site. Round the election-no side, former SAG leader Alan Rosenberg and Scott Wilson -- champion of SAG's Take advantage of Morgan award for service -- grew to become part of about 30 antimerger protesters before SAG and AFTRA headquarters. Meanwhile, lawyers for merger rivals, headed by David Casselman of Wasserman, Comden, Casselman & Esensten, are actually tussling with SAG lawyers inside the materials being incorporated inside the ballot materials. Casselman revealed Thursday evening he and SAG lawyers had showed up in a tentative agreement round the Opposition Report which will be shipped to individuals. That document -- limited to 1,000 words -- wasn't needed incorporated within the ballot materials nevertheless the SAG and AFTRA boards OK'd its inclusion lately. Professional-merger forces have contended that SAG and AFTRA might have more clout just like a combined union -- a contention that been disputed on numerous occasions by Rosenberg, who offered two terms as SAG prexy from 2005 to 2009. He is constantly insist that AFTRA's leaders are actually too taking companies, that your merger will put people leaders in the dominant position. "This merger continues to be done to make sure that nobody will endure the businesses,Inch Rosenberg mentioned. "It's a mislead condition that we'll become more effective by merging with AFTRA. The identical leaders pushing this are the same ones who developed a deal a year ago where we gave away first-class travel combined without any advances on new-media provisions." The merger proposal is going to be shipped to 120,000 SAG people and 70,000 AFTRA people, who include stars, tv producers, DJs, entertainers and ballroom ballroom dancers. To feed, the referendum takes a 60% approval margin from both orgs among votes cast. SAG and AFTRA will mail out ballots on Feb. 27, getting a tabulation date of March 30. Rivals may also be objecting to having less a comprehensive analysis of mixing the SAG and AFTRA pension and health plans also to the claims with the unions inside their feasibility study. The unions' overview of the feasibility study noted that 100s of multi-employer pensions have merged within the last twenty-five years, and there is no legal obstacle to merging the SAG and AFTRA pension and health plans. Furthermore, it mentioned multi-employer plan mergers don't pose any elevated possibility of insufficient benefits. Cassleman couldn't agree. "The crux of but SAG is representing that merger can result in no reduction in pension or health improvements,In . he mentioned. "However only the merger in the unions is available now. Once the unions are incorporated, SAG people might have no further voice or opportunity to oppose a later merger in the pension or health plans, no matter the highly probable negative effect that plan mergers might have by themselves benefits." Casselman also asserted the merger proposal can also be promoted as if it'll solve the problem of split actor earnings beneath the separate SAG and AFTRA P&H plans. Merger backers contend that mixing SAG and AFTRA makes it better to mix the plans just like a foundation fixing the problem that artists face to make contributions for the separate plans then not meeting the earnings qualifications. "Nevertheless the undisclosed truth is the merger proposal does not even offer an approach to that historic problem," Casselman mentioned. "The merger plan will codify the split earnings dilemma just like things stand today." SAG First V . p . Ned Vaughn, a pacesetter in the Unite for Strength faction that has centered guild politics lately, responded by stating that merger rivals do not have the backing of individuals. "The identical crowd keeps utilizing the same not successful tactic, plus it seems as if they are getting desperate. After they can't have the support of individuals, they use a legal gun to accomplish whatever they can't have finished within the ballot box. four years of election returns have handled to obtain apparent that individuals want nothing associated with their divisiveness," Vaughn mentioned. More youthful crowd requested Casselman's expertise. "I'm amazed their lawyer thinks they are fully aware a little more about the security within our pension and health improvements when compared to a half-dozen in the country's top experts, who all agree that merger is a good step," Vaughn mentioned. "One factor he clearly doesn't find out about might be the disastrous effect getting separate unions has received on working-class stars. This is why the particular experts -- our people -- have handled to obtain so apparent they require SAG and AFTRA to merge." Contact Dork McNary at dork.mcnary@variety.com