NB Votes to Build it

So, the AFTRA National Board voted to create a New Union Committee.

It's true. Again. Like Lucy holding the football for Charlie Brown, like Don Quixote tilting at windmills, like some fan wishing for a new Hair Band World Tour - OK, not exactly - the elected leadership of AFTRA voted at its May meeting to form a new union committee and authorized full-out discussions with Screen Actors Guild on the creation of one new union.

SAG had already done the same at its earlier board meeting.

So...Hold on to your pocketbooks. These attempts aren't cheap. A million here, a million there, pretty soon you're talking about real money.

Third time's the charm? Or, our last chance?
Our cheekiness aside, those millions are cheap in comparison to the cost of not doing this. We're all aware that there is no "status quo" to maintain. We're either growing our ability to capture the work of the 21st century, or we're falling further and further behind. At a certain point, there will be no catching up.

Yes, this is serious stuff. Our ability to successfully negotiate with our increasingly consolidated employers is at stake. Our collective decision to commit, without reservation, to organizing work for all categories - actors, broadcasters, singers, dancers, voice artists, book readers, gamers, you name it - at all levels of production (cable TV at $250K an episode? You bet! Multi-plexed HD channels? You bet. Big budget film and television? Of course. Internet "shows" at production levels unheard of? You bet!) is key to our success in the digital media industry of this century.

Consolidated employers, meet consolidated talent.
Whatever we can do together to expand our footprint across the landscape of media will strengthen us. Our ability to be agile enough to sign the newest of "new" media will build our union opportunities from the ground up. And our willingness to reach out to each other as union members - at a time when union rights are under direct assault - will help us navigate, with trust and goodwill, what promises to be some very choppy waters of change.

There is no "off the shelf" plan for this. We need to create one that fits the facts - and needs - of today, not 15 years ago or even 8 years ago. We will undoubtedly comment along the way. Many AftraNOW members will work on this plan. It is our sincere wish that whatever is finally agreed upon will successfully carry all of us forward for decades to come, no matter how "virtual" it all gets.