Actors Strike Unresolved, Taking Financial Toll

Aug. 8, 2000 -- Now in its 15th week, the strike by commercial actors is the longest in the union’s history and is nowhere near resolution.

And while that’s bad news for the thousands of actors who work in front of the camera, it’s also a crisis for the thousands others who normally work behind the scenes.

They’re so far apart they don’t even agree on who ended the last negotiating session.

“They refuse to speak to us,” says Ilyanne Kichhaven, a spokeswoman for the Screen Actors Guild.

“All it takes is that they give us a call,” says Ira Shepard, counsel to the Joint Policy Committee, the bargaining arm of the advertising industry.

Residual Issue

SAG and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists want actors to receive residuals each time a commercial airs, even on the Internet or cable television. The advertisers, however, want a one-time payment and fewer restrictions on Internet usage.

The residuals ensure that if a commercial is wildly successful for a company, the actor shares in that success and is compensated for any overexposure the actor may suffer for being closely identified with a single product. Shepard, however, said the advertisers’ offer would grant a 17 percent raise for an actor in a typical commercial.

The costs are felt most deeply in Los Angeles and New York, centers of commercial production.

“Commercial production was very strong in Los Angeles, and rising. The economy was taking off and dot-com spending was increasing,” says Morrie Goldman, the spokesman for the Entertainment Industry Development Corp. “Then you sort of hit a wall.

“We estimate the impact at about a $1 million a day for the city of Los Angeles,” he says.

Impact Behind the Camera

Among those suffering are workers in affiliated industries.

“I used to turn down five jobs a day. Now the phone doesn’t even ring,” says Josh Kuhn, the owner of a Hollywood-based catering business Josh’s Nosh, which until a few months ago worked exclusively with film productions. Now he’s seeking out work in office buildings.

“They don’t see what they’ve done to me,” said Kuhn, who is now into a third mortgage on his home to keep his business alive. “I’m angry, yeah.”

The story is similar on the other coast, where Betsy Nagler, a sound technician, says she is having a hard time finding work. When she does find a job, it’s made more difficult by chanting SAG pickets who sometimes bang on pans in hopes of disrupting the shoot. Her union, the IATSE, has not directed its members to avoid picketed sites.

“I understand why they’re striking, but when they’re yelling at you all day, it starts to feel very antagonistic,” she said.

Since Nagler works on a free-lance basis, she does not have a steady paycheck. Not only is she working less now, but she’s taking sound jobs she would normally turn down. Many people prefer commercial work, she said, because the 10-hour day is better than the 12-plus-hour shifts at a TV feature.

“I think a lot of us are worried,” Nagler says. “We want the strike to be settled.”

Union Stands GroundTodd Amorde, chairman of SAG’s national strike committee, says the actors are holding strong in their demands and will not back down. “Once corporate America gets a taste that they’re able to bust a union, they’re not going to stop,” he says.

Shepard says it is absurd to suggest he and the 150 advertisers and 275 advertising agencies he represents want to bust the unions. “Nothing could be further from the truth. I would like nothing more than to build on the 50-year partnership that exists,” he says.

What is clear is that the effects of the strike reach far.

“Working families across the county will feel the impact,” Amorde says.

Jack Kyser, the chief economist at the private Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp., says the impact of the commercial actors strike have been offset by the hastened pace of production of TV and movie features in hopes of having shows in the can before those actors’ contracts comes up for review next year.

“The overall economy is still rumbling along. But next year, that would have more ramifications,” Kyser says. “You’ll see more feature filming this year, and everything come to a halt by mid-May.”

Production Packs UpThe latest statistics show the strike’s impact is growing.

The Entertainment Industry Development Corp. tracks the effect by measuring the numbers of days permits are pulled for commercial filming in the Los Angeles area. Its monthly 2000 production days data show an increase over 1999 for every month this year until July, when there was a drop of 12 percent. May was up 24 percent, June was 9 percent higher, and then the decline in July.

Canada is among the regions reaping a windfall from the strike as companies seek out-of-the way locations to avoid the pickets. Actors and some other worker have been reluctant to cross picket lines. Golf star Tiger Woods was the most high-profile SAG member to participate in a filming since the strike began May 1.

Toronto, which has invested heavily in luring production crews, says it ranks third in film and television production in North America.

Some are worried that the companies might get accustomed to going elsewhere. “Even if the strike is settled, we’re wondering if business is going to come back here. It may very well take a couple of years to patch this up,” Kuhn said.

Advertisers Not WorriedIt is unclear how many actors are taking a direct hit to their pocketbooks over the strike.

Of the Screen Actors Guild’s 100,000 members, a little less than half do commercial work, Kichhaven said. She said it was unknown how many of those actually depend on acting as their primary income.

But SAG’s own Web site makes it clear that many of its members are not full-time actors. “According to SAG statistics, in 1996 more than 85 percent of SAG’s 90,000 members earned less than $5,000,” the site states. Elsewhere, the site cautions aspiring actors that paychecks are not always frequent. “In 1998, a little more than 1/4 of our membership did not receive any earnings under SAG contracts.”

And for the advertisers’ part, they say they’re not worried at all.

Shepard says his numbers show that just as many commercials are being made now as before the strike began. “The industry is not hurting at all,” he says.