On July 4 received notice from Sag-Aftra that a tentative Agreement with producers has been reached. I am glad they reached an agreement, and a strike was avoided. With most contract negotiation I am sure we gave up something get the highlighted wins.
It seems like they closed some loopholes in the contract for Netflix. Netflix was taking advantage of a new media contract that was designed for small web series and music video type media. Personally, I worked on a few Marvel/Netflix shows and after 3 years I yet to see residual check. These are not small shows and it really unfair to the performers. I don't blame Netflix either if the union gave me an option of signing a contract that I did not have to pay residual and had other breaks I take it too. Who new V.O.D and Netflix and Amazon V.O.D was going to take off. It was time to fix this problem and give the performers what they are due. I look forward to learning more about what we exchanged for these highlights of the contract.
Total package valued at $256 million over three years
3-year agreement commencing July 1, 2017 and expiring June 30, 2020 Wage increases of 2.5 percent in the first year, 3 percent in the second year and 3 percent in the third year
Half percent increase in the current rate of employer contributions paid to the SAG Pension Plan and AFTRA Retirement Fund in the first year of the agreement, raising the total contribution rate to 17.5 percent effective July 1, 2017
Secured an additional .2 percent increase in funding to the SAG-AFTRA industry cooperative funds, which will support monitoring animal safety on sets, safety training and sexual harassment prevention training
Achieved recognition of Middle Eastern North African as a diverse category in the casting data report
Agreement to study the design and implementation of an electronic reporting system for performer work times Improved residuals for programming made for SVOD (subscription video-on-demand)
First residual is now due in 90 days rather than one year
Increase in the residual rate
First ever residuals compensation for foreign use
Improvements to money and schedule breaks
Improvements to the advertiser-supported streaming residuals
Outsized increase of 18 percent for background actors working under the CW supplement
Terms requiring that all background actors be paid double-time starting after 10 hours of work
