SAG-AFTRA Convention

The newlyweds' throw their first big party.

SAG-AFTRA Ready for Its Close-Up With First Combined Convention

... More than a year and half after the merger, the combined SAG-AFTRA is hosting its coming-out party this weekend.

More than 350 delegates, labor leaders and guests will be on hand for the first SAG-AFTRA convention, which kicks off Wednesday night at the JW Marriott Hotel in downtown Los Angeles with a reception that L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti will attend.

U.S Labor Secretary Thomas Perez and AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka top the weekend’s list of scheduled speakers.

With the theme of United for Our Future, the five-day event brings together national officers and board members, local presidents and members from around the country to discuss and decide on items vital to the future of the union. In addition to 14 panels and six workshops, the convention will also see the formal installation of the union’s new governance structure, which includes an 80-member national board that will meet for the first time Monday. ...

SAG and AFTRA should have combined forces fifteen or twenty years ago. A number of Screen Actors Guild dinosaurs fought the marriage for years, not wanting to sully the actors' union.

Happily, cooler heads won the day when AFTRA started gobbling up a lot of SAG's jurisdiction, and now ... here we are!