THANK
YOU!
Portland’s SAG-AFTRA office closed May 31, though not without a sendoff
party. Above, national union board member Mary McDonald-Lewis greets
friends, like Broccoliman, who dropped by to say farewell.
With your help, the Guide
Dogs of America Fishing
Derby raised $10,000!
SAG-AFTRA closes Oregon
office amid mass protest
Business and governor
to union: ‘Don’t go!’
The union representing performers
in film, television, radio, and music
closed its Portland office May 31,
though not without protest. Last year,
the Screen Actors Guild and the Amer-
ican Federation of Television and Radio
Artists merged to become 165,000-
member SAG-AFTRA. On April 20,
2013, the merged union’s national
board approved the closure of 13 local
offices around the country, and the lay-
off of 60 staff.
But Oregon SAG-AFTRA leaders
waged a campaign to keep the Portland
office open. Arguing that closure was a
mistake, given the growth of Portland
and Oregon as a media market, they
filled a Facebook page with letters and
YouTube testimonials from local actors,
and even garnered letters of support
from a producer association and from
Gov. John Kitzhaber.
Without a local office, SAG-AF-
TRA will lose relevance in the market,
Oregon Media Production Association
Executive Director Tom McFadden told
SAG-AFTRA national Executive Di-
rector David White in a May 7 letter.
Kitzhaber, in a May 28 letter to
White, said he would normally not en-
gage in discussions of internal union
operations such as the location of local
union offices. “However,” he continued,
“your union’s presence in this state is an
economic asset for Oregon, and closing
this office is as problematic for Oregon
as would be the loss of any business.”
Kitzhaber wrote the letter after run-
ning into Mary McDonald-Lewis in the
state Capitol. McDonald-Lewis —
SAG-AFTRA’s co-national board
member representing Portland — is a
voice actor who had voiced Kitzhaber’s
election campaign ads.
McDonald-Lewis campaigned
fiercely against the office closure, col-
lecting over 700 signatures on an online
petition asking the board not to approve
PAGE 12
it. But the union budget, which included
the office closures, passed by about
two-to-one, she said, with board mem-
bers from Los Angeles and New York
voting for it, while those from smaller
media markets voted “no.”
“Though we make our living per-
forming, singing, dancing, and report-
ing, we are at the end of the day labor
union members and members of the
working class,” McDonald-Lewis told
the Labor Press. “We need the same
protections of wages and working con-
ditions that any other union member re-
quires.”
McDonald-Lewis said the Portland
office served over 700 members, pre-
dominantly actors, but also radio and
television personalities. Going forward,
Oregon members will be represented by
staff in other SAG/AFTRA offices, in-
cluding Seattle. Besides Portland, the
offices being closed cover Houston-
Austin, Twin Cities, San Diego, Ne-
vada, Arizona-Utah, Colorado, New
Mexico and New Orleans.
On the Portland office’s final day,
when national staff showed up to over-
see changing the locks, they were met
by McDonald-Lewis and a contingent
of union members. McDonald-Lewis
told them that — in defiance of a na-
tional leadership order for a 5 p.m. clo-
sure — local union members planned
to have a proper sendoff party for local
Executive Director Nathaniel Apple-
field. Applefield, a campaign operative
and former state field director for now-
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, had run AF-
TRA’s local office since 2011.
That night, with painted-on “solidar-
ity sideburns” to mimic Applefield’s
look, SAG-AFTRA members said their
good-byes. With labor ballads from the
band General Strike, the sendoff party
was live-streamed on the Internet.
The Oregon AFL-CIO has offered
use of its Oregon Labor Center meet-
ing hall in Portland, SAG-AFTRA Vice
President Michelle Marian said, if
members want to continue to congre-
gate.
RiverPlace Hotel
Local Lodge 1005
RiverPlace Marina
Local Lodge 1432
Three Degrees Restaurant
David Ackerman
Heron Lakes Golf Club
IAM District W24
Brenton's Outdoor Adventures
John Hall
Union Sportsmen's Alliance
Mark Blondin IAM General VP, Aerospace Dept.
Gerber Legendary Blades
Sunrise Dental
Gary Allen IAM General VP, Western Regional Office
Dick's Sporting Goods
Local Lodge 63
A special thanks to Scott
Wealth Management Group
and to TODD and JULIE BRENTON and all the fishing guides.
12-31-2013.
2013
NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
JUNE 7, 2013