Posts by nzlemming
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Nice post, webweaver.
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About the only things they haven't managed are links to organised crime.
Well, Roy Billing says he's on the MEAA board in Aussie, and Billing was in Underbelly: Mr Asia, so....
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Nice work, DexterX. I hadn't thought about the need to transfer, but I think you are correct in your analysis. Also, that their rules are incomplete.
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Australians <------------------ points and laughs
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Excuse me but technically speaking that's a "dark and stormy night"
It's the little things...
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They're a performers union in general, aren't they?
From http://www.alliance.org.au/option,com_simplefaq/task,display/Itemid,27/catid,13/page,1/#FAQ1
The Alliance is the union and professional organisation which covers everyone in the media, entertainment, sports and arts industries. Our 22,000 members include people working in TV, radio, theatre & film, entertainment venues, recreation grounds, journalists, actors, dancers, sportspeople, cartoonists, photographers, orchestral & opera performers as well as people working in public relations, advertising, book publishing & website production ...in fact everyone who works in the industries that inform or entertain Australians. The Alliance was created in 1992 through the merging of the unions covering actors, journalists and entertainment industry employees: Actors Equity (AE) The Australian Journalists Association (AJA) The Australian Theatrical & Amusement Employees Association (ATAEA) Since amalgamation, the Symphony Orchestra Musicians Association (SOMA) & the NSW Artworkers Union have joined the Alliance, a Professional Sports Branch has been created & the Screen Technicians Association of Australia (STAA) reconstituted itself under the Alliance banner.
which makes their behaviour towards techs even more bizarre. I wonder if Helen Kelly and the CTU have thought about the possible breadth of the MEAA's ambitions in the NZ labour market...
Given that I presume he's an employee, that would have no meaning. No confidence effects members of the executive, not employees who are protected by employment law
Also from that page:
The Alliance is a member based organisation, and is run by members for members. The decisions taken by the Alliance are made by both the federal executive of the union which is made up of both honorary and full-time officials and federal council which is made up of elected member delegates representing all sections.
Of the full-time elected officials on staff, Mr Christopher Warren is the federal secretary of the Alliance and our most senior officer, he can contacted via email at federal.secretary@alliance.org.au. The Alliance also has two assistant federal secretaries, Mr Mark Ryan responsible for Media, Technical & Professional Sports members and Mr Simon Whipp, who is also director of the Equity section. They can both be reached at mail@alliance.org.au.
so, while employment law is probably relevant, I would think the possibility of members expressing no confidence is equally relevant, if not probable.
The union one and the government's one were both available online - scoop I think? I've certainly read both.
Thanks for that. I'll go look.
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I can understand people telling me that NZAE and MEAA are the same (now) but what is the motive to keep the NZAE name to the fore?? Making them look like goodguys for us looney NZers? Making it look like it is a NZ operation?
You ask "what is the motive to keep the NZAE name to the fore?" In my opinion, it's the opposite of your first suggestion - to make them look like the good guys - and it's there so that the MEAA can point and say "it's not us that's screwing up your industry! See, it's your own people!"
It's not unusual for a society or company to have one legal name and a different trading name, especially if you are trying to evoke historical context. Actor's Equity goes back many decades in NZ. It was never big or powerful. Given the people MEAA was selling themselves to (e.g. Kate Harcourt, Donagh Rees et al) it's likely they reasoned that the AE brand would be more attractive than simply joining an Aussie union called the MEAA. They probably thought it would resonate better with employers and ordinary NZers, and evoke the original UK Equity as well as the US Equity (SAG is not the only union in the US involved).
ObPhantom - For Those Who Came In Late:
MEAA came to NZ in 2006 and suggested to some actors (see my earlier post that resurrecting Actors Equity would be a good thing. Since the passage of the ECA and the later ERA which replaced it, Equity was unable to reach the minimum numbers to register as a union.The MEAA sold a bill of goods including resources and reciprocity across the ditch and a bunch of people bought into it. Far more considered and rejected it, being quite happy to operate without union coverage.
I was one of those, though I don't do a lot of acting any more. One of the refounders (a very old friend) spent a long evening and some extended emails trying to convince me to join up, but I could see exactly this sort of scenario unwinding. I could never see how it was in the MEAA's interest to promote strong unionism in New Zealand (bugger international solidarity - it doesn't go as far as helping prevent your members from working overseas) but I could see how useful it would be to be able to shove a spanner in the NZ industry if you were trying to boost your own. (See SAG Global Rule One)
The actors involved signed up to register an incorporated society as the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (New Zealand) Incorporated in 2007 and have been operating as "an autonomous part of the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance" since that point. Because of "an administrative oversight" they managed to let their registration lapse and recently had to re-register the society under the same name with a new constitution, which they did last week.
As far as the blacklist was concerned, it was requested by Simon Whipp of the sibling organisations in FIA and they obliged. The NZ branch did not formally request the blacklist (to keep their hands clean is my guess) but I become less convinced daily that the committee at least was not aware it was going to happen. Initially, I thought the incoherence of their response was due to them being caught by surprise by the request. Now I think they were just caught by surprise by Jackson's response to the blacklist. I think they probably thought it was all going to occur behind closed doors and were unprepared for public exposure.
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Had I been JWL or the person from SPADA, I would have refused the invitation as I wouldn't want even the appearance of collusion to taint my integrity.
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Ross:
NZAE is not independent of the MEAA. They are registered as an incorporated society - Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (New Zealand) Incorporated. At best, "Actor's Equity" is only a brand name now, it is not a legal entity any more. -
Okay, same old dialectic shit.
Time to stop feeding.