Qualified Voting Redux
Digital Media Law: Remember “qualified voting”? Also called “affected voting,” it’s the idea that only some union members should be eligible to vote on a contract (or strike authorization): namely, those who are actually affected by it – i.e., those who work under the contract. The countervailing argument is that unions are supposed to be united, and thus any member should be able to vote on any contract.
Several months ago, anti-strike forces in SAG pushed for qualified voting, putting forward a proposal that would have disqualified many SAG members from voting because they hadn’t worked even a day in the previous 12 months as a SAG actor. That would have reduced the likelihood of a strike, because actors who aren’t working have little to fear from a work stoppage (they’re already not working). SAG leadership killed the proposal, describing the proposal as anti-democratic.
Ironically, while spurning qualified voting for their own…