But if that happened, SAG just wouldn't be SAG.
Last week, guild politics got interesting again. An unexpected challenge to the New York division leadership emerged, and a group of MembershipFirst actors reportedly registered to run for the board of directors as independents. Although SAG has not yet unveiled the official list of candidates, the time for campaign rhetoric starts now.
Everybody Loves Merger
United Screen Actors Nationwide has long held near total control over the New York boardroom and backed merger between SAG and AFTRA. In the 2009 elections, the group supported Howard and Aquino in their campaigns. That year, New York division presidential candidate Mike Hodge and his USAN slate faced a challenge from a group of New York actors loosely aligned with Los Angeles–based MembershipFirst but easily swept the election. This year, with MembershipFirst vowing not to field a slate of its own, no such challenge was anticipated.
Then, last week, a group calling itself One Strong Union announced a field of 10 candidates for the national and New York boards of directors. One of those candidates, Sam Robards, also said he would oppose Hodge in the race for New York president. That USAN faced a campaign challenge was surprising. That its opposition consisted of actors previously aligned with USAN and included sitting members of the New York board was the greater surprise.
"When I noticed who it was, I was extremely disappointed," Hodge said. "I had not been given a heads up by anyone in the boardroom that there was any kind of discontent, let alone discontent of that level." As for the motivation for this challenge, Hodge said it had occurred to him that the OSU candidates "may be positioning themselves to be the leaders of the new organization" that would emerge post-merger, but he added he was not certain if that was the case. He also said he has heard OSU candidates refer to "dead wood" on the USAN slate. "It strikes me that the people that they're referring to are the people that are background actors. I notice that they don't have background actors on their slate. We do. It is important to me that we represent our entire membership." When asked whether he saw any difference between OSU and USAN on merger and other issues, Hodge responded, "In terms of policy, I see no differences."
Robards, who described himself and his fellow OSU candidates as "absolutely 100 percent pro-merger," said his group and USAN "have different perspectives, different approaches" on the issue. "The main thing is that who is elected to the board will have a direct effect on the shape and the success of the merger effort," he said. When asked how the New York board would differ under OSU leadership, he made several references to increased "transparency" but did not offer specifics. "There are specific ideas, and I'll talk about that in the coming weeks," he said. "But basically I want to make the work of the board transparent. I want give the membership more opportunities to be directly involved in the work of the guild. Inclusion is really important."
Robards also pointed to his group's website and the massive number of endorsements gathered there. Although Hodge and USAN have received the official backing of Howard and Aquino, OSU lists among its supporters former New York division president and USAN member Paul Christie and current AFTRA New York local president and first national vice president Holter Graham. Does Hodge feel that the endorsement by one of AFTRA's top officers of a challenger to New York's division president could undermine the merger effort?
"I can't say whether it undermines the merger process," he said. "That depends on how members respond, I suspect. It's regrettable that the sitting AFTRA New York local president would openly oppose the sitting New York SAG president and the board candidates with whom he's running, especially since we are endorsed by the sitting national president Ken Howard and secretary-treasurer Amy Aquino."
Graham, for his part, confirmed his endorsement of Robards and OSU to Back Stage. He emphasized he is offering his support as an individual and that it does not reflect any official position of AFTRA. "The reason I got into union work in the first place is to do the best for the members, and I think that that's what [OSU] is looking to do, especially as we go looking to build a new union," Graham said. "The most open minds and the people most energized toward finding the best solutions are the ones that are going to help us the most, and that's who I think these people are."
Not Everybody Loves Merger
The day after One Strong Union announced itself to the world, The Hollywood Reporter-Back Stage's sister publication-reported that 12 actors "skeptical of" merger would run as independent candidates for seats on the Hollywood division and national boards. Most of the actors had previously been aligned with MembershipFirst, and their candidacies were revealed to the Reporter by Union Democracy Now, which the publication characterized as an "anti-merger group." The independent group included Scott Bakula, George Coe, Valerie Harper, David Hillberg, David Jolliffe, Mobin Khan, William Mapother, Esai Morales, Scott Pierce, John Tremayne, and two unnamed actors. Should they run, they would do so in opposition to Howard and Aquino's pro-merger party, Unite for Strength.
MembershipFirst leader Anne-Marie Johnson, the former Hollywood division president who unsuccessfully ran against Howard for president in 2008, reiterated to Back Stage that MembershipFirst is not fielding a slate this year. However, she expressed personal support for several of the actors mentioned in the Reporter piece. "The candidates mentioned-specifically George Coe, Valerie Harper, Scott Bakula, Esai Morales, and William Mapother-are not affiliated with Union Democracy Now," Johnson said. "They have not stated any public position on merger and aren't even candidates until the Screen Actors Guild has verified their positions."
One of those candidates, Mapother, later told the Reporter that he was "pro–AFTRA merger" and added that he "would potentially support" a merger that would include nonactor members of AFTRA, such as broadcasters. (MembershipFirst has in the past advocated for absorbing AFTRA's actor members into SAG, leaving its broadcasters in a separate union.) According to the Reporter, two of the 12 candidates are members of Union Democracy Now, but the group has no plans to field its own slate.
SAG will mail ballots for officer and board elections to members on Aug. 23. All ballots must be returned by Sept. 26 in order to be counted.
