SAG-AFTRA is the Name!

It was just announced that SAG-AFTRA will be the name of the combined actors' union if and when the proposed merger passes.  Sounds fine to me.  Looks like we'll get to vote on it within the next month or so.  The best part of a merger: money from work under both unions would count towards the same insurance and pension earnings minimums!  Oh, and studios won't be able to get one union to undercut another for contracts...

According to The Hollywood Reporter:

"Assuming – as is virtually certain – that the boards approve the proposal, the package would then be sent to the two unions’ membership for a vote, a phase that SAG president Ken Howard and AFTRA president Roberta Reardon are likely to kick off with an announcement at the nationally televised SAG Awards on Jan. 30.

The ballots will probably go out in February, with a return date in March. Within each union, it takes a 60 percent affirmative vote, of those voting, in order to pass a merger referendum. The last merger attempts, in 1998 and 2003, foundered. In both cases, AFTRA passed the resolution, but SAG didn’t. SAG’s 2003 vote was 57.78 percent in favor, or about 2 percent shy of the requisite number.

In the last several years, however, SAG Hollywood members have voted overwhelmingly in favor of pro-merger candidates, which may foreshadow a thumbs up this time around."