The Screen Actors Guild and other performers' unions on the continent have scheduled fall meetings to take a look at global contracts.
Leaders from the guild and the Alliance of Canadian Cinema, Television, and Radio Artists (ACTRA) will gather in Los Angeles on Tues., Oct. 15 to "talk about Global Rule One, among other issues," Stephen Waddell, ACTRA's national executive director, told Back Stage last week.
In November, representatives from all the performers unions in North America will meet in Montreal to further develop a concrete international contract to globally protect actors in film, stage, and television productions.
The Oct. 15 Rule One meeting comes "at the request of SAG," Waddell said. Those involved will include Melissa Gilbert, SAG's national president; Robert Pisano, SAG's national executive director-chief executive officer; John McGuire, SAG's senior advisor; Thor Bishopric, ACTRA's president; John Juliani, president of the Vancouver-based Union of British Columbia Performers, a part of ACTRA; and Waddell.
SAG began enforcing its Global Rule One--the provision that states that every member of SAG shall work under a guild signatory agreement anywhere in the world--on May 1. Traditionally, the guild had enforced Rule One only on productions shot in the U.S.
Even before its global enforcement began, SAG received a legal threat from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), then publicly challenged the threat, and saw no action from producers.
But SAG also received a bellow from Down Under, and in September announced a detailed agreement with the Media Entertainment & Arts Alliance (MEAA), the Australian performers union, on the implementation of SAG's Global Rule One on Australian productions. According to the guild, the MEAA gave support to the SAG campaign and recognized the mutual goal of improving wages and working conditions for all performers. SAG addressed the Australians' concerns with regard to indigenous low-budget productions.
"We're not looking for an understanding like Australia's," Waddell said. "We're very pleased with the understanding we have now. We strongly asserted our jurisdiction and we've worked out understandings in terms of how SAG members can work in Canada under actor contracts reflecting SAG terms and conditions."
ACTRA has basically endorsed SAG's expanded rule, noting such in an April 17 statement that included specifics on both SAG and ACTRA's jurisdictions. But it took a meeting between the two unions to clarify SAG's intent, which ACTRA had earlier expressed concern about.
"We think it's very positive that they're focusing on Rule One," Waddell had stressed to Back Stage in an interview last February, "but our membership and memberships of the other unions who have dual members--we have ACTRA-SAG members, and British Equity has SAG members--need to know how the rules will impact them when working in their own countries."
This month's meeting will allow the unions to review how Global Rule One has worked in its first six months.
Montreal Meeting of Minds
Waddell indicated that the October gathering will also allow some discussion of the upcoming November confab of the North American performers unions in Montreal. The two days of sessions, Nov. 8 and 9, will involve--besides SAG and ACTRA--the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), Actors' Equity Association; Canadian Actors' Equity Association; Union des Artistes (UDA), the French-speaking Canadian actors union; and the Mexican National Actors Union (ANDA).
Earlier this year, the unions agreed to form a legal committee to begin drafting an international contract that the unions will eventually present to stage, film, and television producers. SAG's McGuire and the guild staff were assigned in February to prepare the first draft of the model international contract.
"We're giving ourselves a fairly short period of time in which to do this" (come up with a draft of an international pact), Waddell said in February. Which means a review of that first draft may be in the offing at the November gathering, but McGuire wasn't available at press time to confirm that.
The gathering earlier this year also included British Actors Equity Association, Australia's MEAA, New Zealand Actors' Equity, and the International Federation of Actors (FIA). While Waddell didn't mention them as a part of the November meeting, it seems logical that if the North American unions look favorably on an international-pact draft, they'll share it with the other English-speaking unions and the FIA.