What is the Screen Actors Guild?
Q: What is the Screen Actors Guild?
A: The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) is an American labor union representing over 200,000 film and television principal performers and background performers worldwide.
Q: What is the purpose of SAG?
A: According to SAG's Mission Statement, the Guild was created to negotiate and enforce reasonable salaries, benefits, and working conditions for its performers; collect compensation for exploitation of recorded performances by its members; provide protection against unauthorized use of those performances; and preserve and expand work opportunities for its members.
Q: When was the Screen Actors Guild founded?
A: The Guild was founded in 1933.
Q: Why was it founded?
A: It was founded in an effort to end exploitation of actors in Hollywood who were being forced into oppressive multi-year contracts with the major movie studios that did not include restrictions on work hours or minimum rest periods, and often had clauses that automatically renewed at the studios' discretion. These contracts were notorious for allowing the studios to dictate the public and private lives of the performers who signed them, and most did not have provisions to allow the performer to end the deal.
Q: Where does SAG maintain local branches?
A: SAG maintains local branches in several major US cities including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Honolulu, Houston Las Vegas Miami Nashville New York City Philadelphia Phoenix Portland Salt Lake City San Diego San Francisco Seattle Washington DC.
Q: What awards are given out annually by SAG?
A: Since 1995 ,the guild has annually awarded the Screen Actors Guild Awards which are considered an indicator of success at Academy Awards.
Q: When did SAG merge with AFTRA ?
A: The membership of Screen Actors Guild voted to merge with American Federation Television Radio Artists on March 30 2012 . It was later renamed as SAG-AFTRA .
