NASHVILLE

Mike Montgomery, SAG Nashville Branch President

As several states in different regions of our country become major players in the game for film revenue, we watch what was once an LA/NY centric industry re-invent itself. What was once deemed fly-over country is now dotted with studios and soundstages. SAG work happens everywhere. I believe ours is a NATIONAL union. I believe those of us who choose to live our lives and ply our craft in regional and Right -To-Work environments deserve to be treated with dignity and respect and that our hopes and concerns should stand on equal footing with any and all other SAG members regardless of Branch affiliation. That is the only way a NATIONAL union can survive. I believe we need to repair the torn relationship with our sister union AFTRA. We should stand and fight together today and, hopefully, as one tomorrow. Contact me HERE.

Cece DuBois, SAG Nashville National Board Representative

It was 1987 when I joined SAG. I was working non-stop, on camera and VO, when the local AFTRA/SAG office called me and said, “Don’t you think it’s time you came down and talked to us?” So I did. And I paid up. And, I thought, that was that. Not so fast, missy. From that point on, I was bitten. I served on the Branch council, then was elected Nashville SAG prez. It was then that I entered the Big Room: The SAG National Boardroom. Barry Gordon was president. The roster of people in the room was very different from today. And the timbre and the energy in the SAG universe was much different then. There was an attitude of cooperation, of us all being "in this thing together." Passionate debate on the floor. Drinks afterward in the bar. Service to the members. No harm, no foul.

My national board service began around 2000, and I served on the Commercials Contract negotiating committee during that six month strike. We spent a total of seventeen weeks in those negotiating rooms. Six months and one scorched earth later, we had a contract. The details of what went on in that room will wait for another time.

(Read More HERE.)