AFTRA Seattle Local President Steve Krueger

Seattle President's Report - June 2010

The Seattle Local’s spring general membership meeting was held Monday, May 17. It was highlighted by reports on the array of new programs and services being undertaken by the Local’s directors, volunteers and staff. This is the report of AFTRA Seattle Local President Steve Krueger, which provides an overview of those activities.
  
This is a memorable year for Seattle AFTRA. We’ve undertaken a number of major initiatives over the past 12 months. Some of those efforts are already seeing results. Others will continue to unfold for another year or two. We’ve brought some new faces into our midst over the past year. Board member and KPLU radio education reporter Gary Davis stepped down as a director, and was replaced by actor Laura Kenney.
            
We brought aboard a pair of talented young intern-activists to help with some of our new efforts. When I saw the applications from these two women, I thought we’d hit the jackpot. I still do. Lila Zucker is our organizing intern, and she brings to us a deep well of experience in organizing and union activism. Pascale Vallee is our communication intern and has a deep commitment to the trade union movement, as well as a gift of words. I am hoping that they will find ways to continue their contribution to our union and this Local, well beyond their internship period.
            
Our union is making a transition from a service union – dedicated largely to administering contracts, negotiating with employers and the like – to an organizing union. But we still have the core responsibility to represent you in your relationships with employers.  
 
At last summer’s national convention in Chicago, Seattle led the fight to get AFTRA National to seriously address the FiCore problem, which has – in large part – contributed to the loss of hundreds of AFTRA freelance jobs in this market. When veteran Seattle board member Dick Arnold first raised this issue back in the 1970s, it was seen largely as an issue particular to the Pacific Northwest. 
 
Last summer, led by Dick, broadcaster Jim Foreman and actor David Natale, we led what amounted to a floor movement that led to the creation of the first-ever national sub-committee to address the FiCore problem. For me, it was one of my proudest moments as an AFTRA officer. When AFTRA National President Roberta Reardon appointed the group, one of her first choices was David Natale. It was an honor both he and this local richly deserved.
 
Our journalist members have a unique job in America. Being a reporter is one of the few professions that’s actually protected by the Constitution. If the right to a free press was important in the late 1700s, it’s even more necessary today. Director Rick Price of KIRO-TV chairs our right-to-report committee. Your local has claimed this issue as its own. 
 
We have encouraged AFTRA National to take aggressive public stands to protect the right of journalists to gather the news the public expects to see. When Roxana Saberi, a freelancer broadcaster from North Dakota, was wrongly seized and imprisoned by the Iranian government, we asked President Reardon to take on the fight for Roxana’s release, and without hesitation she quickly added her voice – and by extension AFTRA members' voices – to the successful international campaign for Roxana's release.
 
A year later, as we sat down in Chicago for our national convention, two San Francisco-based TV reporters who had been seized by North Korea were released into the custody of former President Bill Clinton. Your union was similarly active in helping to raise awareness about their plight, and, eventually, their release – and a big reason why was the encouragement given by Seattle’s right-to-report committee. 
 
Locally, we’ll be joining our TV station employers soon in a meeting with Seattle police. We’ll be trying to try to work through some difficulties that our reporter-members are experiencing in trying to obtain public information in a timely manner from the department. It’s an important issue for our broadcasters and for AFTRA Seattle.
 
In addition to these efforts, over the past 12 months your Local has initiated a free-for-members audio/video production service, the first steps in our part of a national internal organizing campaign, a regular monthly members’ social event and we’re well into the work of preparing to host our union’s 2011 National Convention. 
 
I want to thank our board members for their commitment to the complex mission of AFTRA in 2010 and beyond. Believe me when I say that they serve you well, and that is truly an honor for me to work with them on your behalf.
 
Your staff continues to perform magnificently. Executive Director Brad Anderson is handling several contentious broadcast contract negotiations in Seattle and Portland, while developing close ties to our colleagues in the Rose City. Freelance administrator Ina Novak has been pleasantly busy, dealing with a recent upsurge in acting projects in both the Puget Sound and Portland.  And your tireless Membership Director Chris Comte has his fingers in more pies than Simple Simon and is the backbone of the local’s day-to-day work.  
            
So what lies ahead for our union?
            
For broadcasters, the growing demand from employers that their reporters become what they call “Multi Media Journalists," better known as one-man-bands, will likely dominate contract negotiations in every market. It’ll save money for broadcast owners, but could destroy the quality of TV journalism, at a time when most Americans rely on that medium as their primary source of information. It’s already become an issue here. The outcome of that discussion will help define how TV journalists will do their work for the next quarter century or more.
            
AFTRA and SAG have agreed to once again negotiate together on behalf of performers who work under the AFTRA Exhibit A and SAG TV/Theatrical contract. AFTRA will be working hard to strengthen our internal capacities to serve members. We’ll be using that new found intensity to bring new members into the fold.
            
And the prospect of some kind of merger between AFTRA and SAG has been raised for discussion again.
            
You union is going to be very busy for the next few years and no where is that more true than here in Seattle. 
            
Those of us on the local board are not the union.
 
The national leadership is not the union.
            
You are the union.
            
Together, we will make a difference, for ourselves, for our friends and colleagues, and for those who are yet to join our ranks.
            
As always, if you have any questions – or if you would like to offer your union your services, expertise and creativity -- contact the office.
 
Yours in solidarity,
Steve Krueger
President
Seattle local
American Federation of Television
And Radio Artists
AFTRA/AFL-CIO

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