The SAG-AFTRA elections ended last week. I’ve been a part of 5 election seasons now, and this one was so different from what I’m used to. It was so different that it doesn’t feel right that it’s over now. But I am glad it’s done so the union can move on to the next thing. I tried to enjoy every moment of the election season because I feel it might not be like this again.
The first 3 election seasons I was a part of were pretty similar. There were 2 major parties running for the various positions, so it felt similar to what national politics are like. The slate I’m a part of, Unite For Strength, would help to organize things so we could campaign as a group. There were different events that we would go to and pass out flyers. And things could get very intense from time to time, but I didn’t mind that too much since I was passionate about what I believe in and I wanted to help the cause. Our election in 2021 was different because nothing was happening in person. The events we would pass out flyers at weren’t happening. So much was happening on social media, which made my volunteer position with the slate a little extra stressful. But again, my passion helped me to continue working on things, and I was proud to be a part of something I really believed in.
This year, things changed even more. Some things stayed the same, such as not having a lot of in-person campaigning opportunities. Most of the work we did this election season was done either online or by us as individuals reaching out to people we knew personally. I think a lot of us got to meet more members than normal because of the strike, but because of election guidelines, you could not discuss the elections while picketing.
But the biggest change we had this year was having a unified slate between the 2 major parties. Having a unified slate was so important for a lot of reasons. Our focus should be on the strike and not the election, so not having the usual back-and-forth between candidates wouldn’t be the most productive use of our time. I also think having a lot of leadership changes in the middle of a strike would weaken our position, so keeping as many people as possible in their previously election positions was important. And I think many of us were starting to feel like the way elections had been going and how divisive they have been was wearing us down and not benefitting us or the union as a whole. I know that we can’t always agree on everything, but to have as many disagreements as we have had the last few election seasons was not something that needed to continue.
We did still have other candidates running against the unified slate. They called themselves independent, but they worked as a slate together so they weren’t exactly independent. But even with them running against us, it didn’t feel like it did in the past with 2 major slates running against each other. They did put out some press and articles that weren’t kind about us, but it wasn’t getting a lot of traction so there weren’t arguments that I heard coming from other members who were deciding on who to vote for. Everything seemed so much more calm and simple.
And when the ballots were counted this past Friday, almost all the seats that our Unity slate ran for won! There were a few spots that we didn’t win, but it was only a handful. We didn’t get one of the National Board seats and 4 of the Local Board seats. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t get the Local Board seat I ran for. I am sad about this because I really did want this, but I know that we couldn’t win everything. The 4 independents who won those Local Board seats are all very well-known actors, and many members vote for people they know. But I did win my delegate seat again so I will be a part of the National Convention! I’m so happy that I get to be a part of Convention again and I hope that I will also get a chance to be on some more committees.
I’m so glad that things turned out as well as they did for this election season. It wasn’t everything I wanted, but it was so close to that. And I really am grateful for how calm things were. It did feel weird and it almost doesn’t feel like we just had an election, but it was so nice to have things this way compared to how they have been in the past. And who knows, maybe in 2 years we will have a calm election again!
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