1) Loren Lester was one of the well-spoken highlights of the evening and he asked several pertinent questions. At one point in particular, when he asked about the health plan disparities, Matt Kimbrough and Kim Roberts-Hedgpeth remarked to him from the dais that the $18,520 premium he had quoted was COBRA. (As an aside, COBRA [...]

Confounded by being shut down by board members at every merger meeting, the Vote No movement has decided to conduct their own informational meeting. Anyone that wishes to hear why such a large faction of the Hollywood division is concerned is welcome to attend. I guarantee that questions and statements will not be held to [...]

Yesterday evening, three long standing guild members (including one ex board member) were removed from the the SAG-AFTRA merger group page on Facebook. Here is a copy of the email that was sent as an explanation to one of them: 28 minutes agoSag-Aftra Merger Andrew, I have removed you from the group. This was not [...]

LEAKED MERCER REPORT The Mercer Report was conducted by an outside consultancy in step with the last merger proposal in 2003. Although it concludes that the two plans may be merged, it also makes very clear that doing so may not be in the best interest of SAG members. The Mercer Report states that SAG [...]

This bit of news started circulating yesterday evening. I have not verified its truth- but if it is true, this would certainly be an historic moment in SAG. “From Michael Bell: “Our SAG representatives gave away basic cable residuals for TV LAND.” Recently,the SAG standing committee with a majority of PRO MERGER members on that [...]

Law professor Stephen Diamond, who at one time was considered for the National Director post of SAG, speaks out against the merger with some interesting analysis. Mr. Diamond has a law degree from Yale, and has been active in advising union trustees on pension funds, and on other issues related to corporate governance and social [...]

Over the last few days, I have had time to digest all of the information and I am truly disturbed by what I have discovered. I understand that many of my fellow actors don’t necessarily want a merger but feel it’s the only way to stop AFTRA’s parasitic poaching. YET I truly believe that this [...]