On March 30, 2012, the Screen Actors Guild ("SAG") and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists ("AFTRA") announced that they merged into a single union. This new union, SAG-AFTRA, will now oversee the services of over 150,000 actors, recording artists, stunt performers and other media professionals.
While it is too soon to know what impact the merger will have, there are some important things to keep in mind right now:
- All existing SAG and AFTRA contracts remain in effect until the new union next re-negotiates each contract in the ordinary course. (The SAG and AFTRA Commercials Contracts expire March 31, 2013.);
- The SAG and AFTRA pension and health plans are independent of the unions and have not yet agreed to merge. You should continue to allocate and pay pension and health contributions separately to the SAG and AFTRA plans, as you have before;
- When casting, be aware that all former SAG or AFTRA union members are now members of the new SAG-AFTRA union; and
- ·You may need to change some of your form agreements to account for the merger.
For more information about the merger, visit http://www.sagaftra.org/.
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