Deadline is reporting some new details of the potential SAG and AFTRA merger, including initiation fees, yearly base dues and AFTRA not budging on it’s ‘open-door’ policy.
The new initiation fee for the combined union will be $3,000. Currently, AFTRA’s fee is $1,600 with SAG at $2,230.
The base dues – what you pay if you don’t work at all or only make the minimum amount – will be $198, or $99 every 6 months most likely.
The worst part of the merger is that AFTRA will not remove it’s ‘open-door’ policy until the merger is complete. They write:
“Which means that from now until the effective date, anyone with $1,600 can walk up to the AFTRA cashier and join. Meaning they won’t have to pay the difference between $1,600 and post-merger $3,000. “This potential flood of newbies will absolutely kill the background community,” one of my sources says.
So, if you’re not in the Union and you want to be, grab that spare $1,600 you have lying around your house an head to your local AFTRA office.
Head on over to Deadline for more of the details.
