By KEVIN WISER
Express Staff Writer
STANLEY—Amid the stunning mountain vistas that have caught the eye of
the film industry, four protesters from the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) formed a makeshift
picket line across Roaring Hell Creek Road in the Stanley Basin early Saturday morning.
The protest was in support of an actors guild strike against the
advertising industry that began May 1.
SAG’s target on Saturday was the shooting of a Chevrolet Blazer
commercial along the banks of the Salmon River. A big ad agency with federal permits to
film there was in charge of the production.
Angry SAG members wanted to shut down the filming.
Ratcheting up the tension was the local sheriff who threatened to jail
union activists who interfered with the shoot.
Prompting the confrontation was a contract protecting SAG members who do
commercial work. The pact expired at the beginning of the year.
Since then, negotiations between SAG and the advertising industry have
stalled. As a result, SAG union officials have vowed to chase commercial productions,
which they perceive to be in violation of the strike, wherever they go.
Mary McDonald-Lewis, a SAG board member and veteran activist, stood in the
road with a protest sign in one hand and the peace sign flashing from the other.
McDonald-Lewis, who was arrested last month for disrupting a Chevrolet commercial in
Oregon, was intent on blocking the production crew of 35 from the film site.
"These are our brothers and sisters on this set and they’re
betraying us," McDonald-Lewis told a reporter.
Custer County Sheriff Micky Roskelley then rolled onto the scene and laid
down the law.
"Here are the ground rules, consider this your warning,"
Roskelley told the protesters. "I’ll warn you again one time if you interfere
with the filming, then I’ll arrest you and you won’t see the judge till
Monday."
As the production crew crossed the picket line, tension mounted between
opposing camps who were familiar with each other following confrontations at three filming
locations in Oregon over the last two weeks.
Chicago commercial actor Danny Goldring, the most peaceful of the four
protesters, offered what he called Amish peace bread to ease the tension.
"I’m here to break bread not heads," Goldring said.
Obviously tired of being harassed by the protesters, members of the
production crew declined Goldring’s offer, commenting that the bread was probably
poisoned.
"People in Chicago look at us in the picket line and think were a
bunch of spoiled rich actors," Goldring said. "But we’re just part of the
working class. We are the little guys right down to the bottom."
Campbell Ewald Advertising of Warren, Mich., is handling the advertising
campaign for Chevrolet. The production crew received permits from the SNRA and Ketchum
Ranger District to shoot the commercial footage in the Stanley Basin.
"This is public land," McDonald-Lewis said. "They have
permits but we have an ethical mandate to discourage the production of work performed
during a strike."
McDonald-Lewis claimed Campbell Ewald had brought in nonunion labor and
that SAG members were also working on the production in violation of the strike.
Campbell Ewald producer Steve McRoberts denied the accusations.
"We want to stay within the guidelines of the strike," McRoberts
said. "I have SAG members on the crew but they’re not working in a SAG capacity
so it’s not an issue."
SAG official McDonald-Lewis predictably disagreed.
"Those union members, despite the fact that they’re not doing
union work on this job, are allowing production to take place which will prolong the
strike," she said.
Alex Deleon, a caterer with A&M Catering of Northridge, Calif.,
traveled with the production crew from Oregon to Idaho.
Deleon, who is not affiliated with the striking union and declined to take
sides, tried to put the controversy into perspective.
"If you’re on strike you’re fighting for what you believe
in," he said. "They have the right to protest, but I don’t agree with them
interfering," he said. "Both sides have opinions, but both sides have to feed
their families and make a living."
Stuart Pemble-Belkin, executive director of SAG for Oregon, Idaho and
Montana, said the strike was targeting all companies that didn’t sign the SAG interim
agreement.
"Now it’s Chevrolet," Pemble-Belkin said. "Tomorrow it
could be Chrysler, Proctor & Gamble or AT&T."
For the most part, negotiations center on a couple of key issues:
· SAG members are being asked to give up their
"pay-per-play" formula which has been used for 35 years. This would give the
advertising industry unlimited play of commercials with no additional pay to actors.
· SAG wants the pay-per-play formula for cable television; and it
wants financial guarantees for Internet commercial use
"We feel SAG members have a moral obligation to support the
strike," Pemble-Belkin said. "By crossing the picket line our fellow actors are
helping the companies that are hurting us."
McDonald-Lewis said protest is legal in America, but handled differently
by law enforcement in every state.
Pemble-Belkin said Sheriff Roskelley was restricting their right under
federal law to protest the Stanely Basin commercial shoot. He contended that on public
land—in this case, a federal forest area—protesters should be allowed beyond the
boundaries of the filming permit which includes the background of the shot.
"We were told by the sheriff that if we were anywhere in the shoot we
would be arrested," Pemble-Belkin said.
"They’ve [the production crew] got their permits…and have
gone through the hoops," Roskelley said. "It’s good for business and
promotes the area…They should be able to go about their business without being
harassed."
"I find it especially disturbing that local law enforcement was
brought in to be the lap dog of the producers," McDonald-Lewis said following the
protested shoot. "That’s a shameful thing for any state to lay claim to."
Following the sheriff’s ultimatum, the confrontation was reduced to a
war of words and exchange of propaganda. However, issues were raised involving rights
afforded by the U. S. Constitution.
"There’s human drama here, it’s a fundamental struggle over
liberty and rights," McDonald-Lewis said. "This is over trade labor, working
class issues that affect all Americans, not just actors."
During the Oregon confrontation in which McDonald- Lewis was arrested,
another SAG protester in an all-terrain vehicle collided with a production truck while
trying to disrupt the shoot.
"They have the right to protest," Campbell Ewald producer
McRoberts said. "I have no problem with that as long as they don’t interfere or
do something crazy."
"They’re fanatics," said assistant commercial director
Devin MacDonald. "This is whacked that they’re doing this stuff."
McDonald-Lewis, a member of a committee implementing strike policy
nationally, is a veteran union activist and no stranger to confrontation. The ad
agency’s words didn’t faze her.
"The tradition of unionism is founded in our Constitution," she
said. "If we are radicals, then so were the men who signed the Declaration of
Independence.
"Yes, I’m militant about ending this strike and getting back to
the table and about achieving a fair contract for all my union brothers and
sisters—including the scabs on this shoot."
