SAG-AFTRA Collected $1B In Member Dues, Charges In 10 Years; Report-Excessive Membership – Deadline

EXCLUSIVE: SAG-AFTRA has collected greater than $1 billion in dues and “company charges” from its lively members and monetary core non-members since its founding 10 years in the past with the merger of SAG and AFTRA, in accordance monetary studies the union information with the U.S. Division of Labor.

In an indication of their relative strengths on the time of their merger in 2012, the Display Actors Guild had 129,092 lively members and the American Federation of Tv & Radio Artists had 74,389 – lots of whom have been members of each unions. Within the 10 months previous the merger, SAG collected $43,873,668 in dues and AFTRA collected $26,824,853.

The leisure business’s largest union, SAG-AFTRA had a report 171,157 lively dues-paying members as of April 30, 2022, the top of its final fiscal 12 months. That’s up by practically 6,000 members from the 12 months earlier than.

Even so, the $101.8 million in member dues and non-member “company charges” it collected in the course of the previous 12 months was down by greater than $6 million from the prior 12 months, largely due to dues extensions offered to members in the course of the pandemic. Dues are by far the guild’s largest supply of revenue.

SAG-AFTRA’s membership has remained comparatively flat for the reason that merger, when it began out with 168,593 lively members. That quantity fell to 156,894 in 2014 and to 156,843 in 2015 however has been on a gradual rise yearly since.

These membership numbers, nevertheless, don’t embody monetary core non-members, often known as “company payment payers,” whom SAG-AFTRA has mentioned “are considered as scabs or anti-union by SAG-AFTRA members, administrators, and writers – most of whom additionally belong to leisure unions.”

As of its most up-to-date report, the guild had 4,486 monetary core non-members – numbers which have been steadily rising over the previous 10 years, and greater than doubling since 2013. Even so, their numbers are solely 2.6% of lively members, which is alleged to be low for a lot of unions throughout the nation. Monetary core non-members pay solely that portion of union dues that go straight towards protecting the prices of collective bargaining, contract enforcement and contract administration, however they don’t need to pay that portion of dues the guild spends on lobbying or political actions.

Their dues discount is minimal – lower than 5% – and so they can’t vote in union elections or run for union workplace. In addition they can’t declare to be members of the union on their résumés or headshots. However they’ll work on non-union reveals and cross picket traces throughout strikes with out being sanctioned.

Some go “fi-core” to allow them to work on non-union shoots, however others say they do it for political causes – they both don’t like unions typically or don’t wish to pay for his or her union’s political actions.

SAG-AFTRA studies that in the course of the previous 12 months, it spent $1,097,586 for “political actions and lobbying” in help of laws helpful to its members. The guild, nevertheless, doesn’t endorse or contribute to political candidates.

The guild’s single greatest expenditure over the previous 12 months – because it at all times is – was for representational actions, which at $96 million was up from $71.8 million within the prior 12 months.

The guild’s monetary studies – generally known as LM-2 studies – present that gross salaries paid to its workers totaled $42,963,561 in the course of the previous 12 months. Duncan Crabtree-Eire, the guild’s nationwide govt director, is its highest-paid staffer, although a large portion of the $989,700 he acquired in pay final fiscal 12 months was from accrued trip and break day owed to him in his prior posts on the guild.

When he became national executive director final 12 months, his wage was $770,000. By comparability, David Younger, govt director of the WGA West, earns $897,371, whereas Russell Hollander, nationwide govt director of the DGA, earned $725,000 final 12 months. Crabtree-Eire, who ascended to the guild’s prime put up in June 2021, had been the union’s normal counsel since 2006 and its chief working officer since 2014. He beforehand served because the Display Actors Guild’s deputy nationwide govt director and was a key participant within the efforts main as much as the merger.

SAG-AFTRA declined remark for this report.