In a historic labor win for Spanish-speaking performers after a long unionization battle, Telemundo’s 2016 Latin American Music Awards will be covered by a SAG-AFTRA agreement. It’s the first nationally broadcast awards show produced by Telemundo that will be covered by a union contract. The 2016 Latin American Music Awards will be televised from the Dolby Theater in Hollywood on October 6, and produced by CMS Productions.
SAG-AFTRA President Gabrielle Carteris lauded the organizing efforts, stating:
This is an important step. I applaud Telemundo for moving in the right direction by ensuring fair wages and working conditions for its performers during this year’s Latin American Music Awards. As the network increases production and reaches record audiences, we look forward to continued progress.
Despite achieving historic record ratings and positioning itself as a major player among the broadcast networks, Spanish-speaking performers at Telemundo are paid less than half of their English-speaking counterparts at NBC. They also don’t receive health benefits, residuals or other basic protections that are routinely provided to English-speaking performers at its sister network.
“This is a win for the performers on this program and we are thrilled that Telemundo’s Latin American Music Awards will be covered by a SAG-AFTRA agreement,” said SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director David White. “We encourage NBCUniversal and Telemundo to continue to work with SAG-AFTRA to ensure equal protections for Spanish-language performers throughout the Telemundo production universe.”
Last month, SAG-AFTRA released a 30-second ad drawing attention to the double standard, prompting SAG-AFTRA members to participate in a Labor Day social media action that demonstrated solidarity with Telemundo performers in support of fair wages and working conditions at the network.
