Are Performers Too Ignorant To Build A Future For Themselves?

40 Responses

1. Been busy so no clue who or why IEAU is having their parade rained on this week but the bit about union answering to performers struck me.

   Ideally unions do answer to existing and prospective members. Hopefully IEAU will quickly address their transparency issues to create a foundation for reaching their admirable goals. It would also be helpful to define which goals are short-term, intermediate and long-term as a heads-up for members to research and pick peoples brains to bring relevant pros/cons to the table…..spreading workload prevents burnout and uses their motivation to train future leaders.

2. Why do people enter porn? I’m sure there are many reasons but one of the biggest has to be the illusion that they can make easy money in porn and not have to work for it.

   Why stand on your feet for 8 hours making minimum wage when you can work a few hours a day and make $1000? I think you are expecting too much from the folks that enter porn with that mentality. For every Lisa Ann, Julia Ann, or Phyllisha Anne in porn there are scores of people that entered porn for easy money. They just are not gonna step up and support the IEAU.

3. “ignorant of the fact that it is the union that answers to performers”
   I’m a bit baffled by this, Mike. Performers voted Evan Stone as president of the Union. The union appointed Sean Michael as their president. Am I missing something about the union answering to performers? No performers that I know are against the union as you seem to suggest. They are against being ripped off. It’s not performers mining the credibility of the union, it’s whoever runs the union mining its own credibility. I would like to know in all these months what the union has done to attract performers, beside spamming different forums with their GO UNION slogan. They have tricked the elections, they haven’t done a thing to grant transparency, they have sacked everybody who raised legitimate concerns, they give access to their forum only to certain people, meaning that not all performers can have their say and now they are even using the union website to advertise the business of certain board members, which personally I find it appalling. Please, tell me Mike: why a performer with a bit of grain of salt should trust this union as today? Maybe when some people will make a step back. Until then it’s nothing like a performers’ union, but only a private business matter for few. If I’m wrong or/and if you know something we don’t, please, feel free to address it using some examples of how this union is answering to performers.

   Seriously…Are those ads on the site run for free or are they paid? If they are for free, can I have them running my ad too? If not, why? If they are paid, is it normal that a board member of a Union finances the union through advertising of their own private business on the union official home? Where I come from this is yet another bogus practice which surely doesn’t contribute raising performers confidence. If they want performers support they need to work hard to get it and not just giving it for granted. We all have fallen for scams too many times in this industry to just trust someone at first sight. My 2 cents of course.

4. Heres the thing Sabrina, am i trying to goad performers into taking more of an interest in their own destiny, absolutely, did the current union really fuck up the election…absolutely. But the point is that the way a union works is that it answers to the rank and file. This union is recognized by the US government as being the only union that represents adult performers and as such that opens doors. If performers dont like the way the union is currently doing things all they have to do is join, and change it because they do have that power, but only if they join and change it. I have been critical of the lack of transparency but if half of the eligible adult performers joined it and made it what they want it to be there is nothing anyone can do to stop them, the current officers can be thrown out as can policies and proceedures and it can be molded into what you want it to be, but only if people join and do it, otherwise status quo is maintaned. the recent vote in Britian is a brilliant example of what can happen when previously apathetic people who could vote but didnt suddenly say you know enough is enough, they overthrew the power structure and pulled out of the EU…That is huge…Its the same sentiment that here in the USA has put Donald Trump and bernie Sanders at the forefront of American politics. Instead of being apathetic, get involved and change it, performers have that power. I know that you are trying believe me, its the typical American performer who isnt educated enough to see that while she may be making good money now, in 2 to 3 years she will be spat out with no future, less time in most cases, and these performers are doing nothing to improve their lot.

5. @MikeSouth

   No secret that I’ll applaud any and all efforts to encourage performers and anyone else for that matter doing some digging and deciding for themselves which option is best. That said and knowing how easily tasks get knocked down the list of priorities until I’ve forgotten them it becomes impossible to assume people are ignorant instead of doing the best they can to get through their day. That is why I support the idea of a union for workers in all aspects of the adult industry.

   Ran across this on a OSHA news site “The New York Times: Babeland, an adult toy store with locations in New York City, has become the first adult sex shop to unionize after a majority of employees voted to join the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, reports Rachel Abrams. Employees said the pro-union vote would help them address wage and training issues, as well as issues related to harassment from customers and workplace conditions for transgender employees. Abrams writes: “The employees have advocated better training and support from management to deal with problematic customers. They had pushed for caller ID, for example, to help weed out the threatening phone calls workers said they received on a daily basis. Two of the three stores now have caller ID, Babeland said.””

   It’s incomprehensible that a tech savvy industry didn’t utilize caller-ID in those retail stores. Caller-ID is a given for worker safety, used in retail, docs offices, you name it with most adding on call logging. When I think about the hundreds of miniscule things like this performers have wished for it makes sense that a union with reps trained in business negotiations would be more effective than frustrated (emotional) workers trying to create standards every producer/stakeholder agrees to.

   The union ideally would be a worker resource with training to educate all workers what performers need to do to ensure their safety and the well being of the companys who hire them. Ideally there would be resources to educate performers on the high rate of turn over with tips to avoid burning bridges & their paychecks before they have a plan to transition to another means of fiscal support.

   Performers average age, maturity and lack of life experience are a more likely culprit to me than apathy or ‘ignorance’ More and more performers are looking up ways to make a fast buck from the comfort of their parents homes or parent/grant subsidized dorm rooms with treetop tall bulletproof confidence deafening them to any cautions…so in that sense I’d agree lack of life experience = blissful til its not ignorance.

6. For the record I don’t recall ever hearing about or watching an adult film with Phyllisha Anne in it. Maybe she performed under another name but I haven’t run across a cross-reference between hers and an adult film performer’s name. I am not saying that should disqualify her from involvement in a movement to improve performers work environments but it isn’t appropriate to insinuate that someone has been in adult film when there isn’t evidence to support that assertion.

   For the record (yes, another one) if there had been an adult film industry to speak of when I was barely legal, I were either a male with a ten inch, baseball-bat thickness dick that could stay up for more than ten minutes or a hot chick with 36DDDs, a Texas-sized butt and a pretty face, there wasn’t the risk of going to prison and being harassed by law enforcement for fucking without a license/obscenity and it paid the time-equivalent of $1000 for six hours work I would probably have taken that route, too. I might have still attended a university but no doubt I would have did porn. Considering the worst thing you would have caught back then was crabs or syphilis (both curable) disease would not have been much of a consideration for me. At least with crabs you can pluck them off, boil them up and eat them with drawn butter 🙂 .

   As far as performer rights, we are going to have to find a reasonable compromise. Condom mandatory won’t work for porn, very few performers will continue to perform if every time they do they have to soak their pussies in ice water for a week from condom-caused irritation. after the scene Condoms and lube will have to be available for female performers that wish to use them. Mainstream porn producers and directors are going to have to stop the circus acts such as three dicks in a woman’s ass and actual choking (choking can be easily faked). BDSM producers will likely be able to continue acts that are kinky and don’t cause medium or long-term harm as long as everything is explained to the performers before they accept the job. A fair system will have to be created for producers to pay for performer VD testing and treatment. Agents will not be able to sign performers to long-term contracts to hold them hostage to them (I would suggest three months as a maximum contract term). Producers will have to pay their talent via payroll with all taxes deducted and also pay the employer’s share of FICA and Medicare as well as carry State Fund (or the state of production’s equivalent if not in CA) workman’s comp policies. Weinstein’s “run porn out of CA” ballot proposal allowing anyone in the state to sue everyone involved for not using condoms, dental dams, goggles and whatever else he can think of will have to be eliminated (or preferably not become law at all). Scumbags like Donny Long, Dave/Dwight Cunningham, Karen Michmichian (if that is actually her real name and not one of a million aliases she has), Dr. Uncle Peg, Paul Morris and Rob Black will have to become persona non grata in the adult film industry. “Gay” performers will have to be tested every 14 days just as “straight” and “lesbian” performers are now. Finally, required HIV tests will have to include both a PCR-RNA and an Elisa/Western Blot series every 14 days as well as quick-tests on set directly before each day’s filming.

7. It does not surprise me that many are apathetic about joining a performers union. A fair percentage of performers, or even sex workers in general, don’t see sex work as a long term vocation. It’s something they’re doing to pay the bills for the time being, even though they may have minimal plans for doing something else.

8. But this is porn Mike. This is not like any other industry. Most things are bass ackwards in this industry. Here you have this union saying they are trying to find insurance companies to pay for testing,,,a REAL union would DEMAND that employers pay for testing. This is porn, where the talent works for the agencies, when its supposed to be the agency working for the talent. Someone mentioned LATATA as the closest thing ever to a union. LATATA was set up for the benefit of the agents, and they were open about that. The goal of LATATA was not to better the working conditions of performers, it was to leverage the power that agents had. I guess you could call it something like a union, a union of agents, by agents, for agents. And they have that right to build such an organization, unfortunately like everything in porn, the brainstrust behind it was severely lacking.

   Mike, this union still has a link to Piracy On The High Sees laws under their piracy link on the front page of their website. Again, the braintrust in charge is severely lacking. Have they even mentioned anything like a credit union?

9. I think that a big part of the problem here is the duration of a “pornstar” career. While some certainly do last (Here’s looking at you, Hedgehog!), the reality is that the vast majority of the female talent is here today, gone LATER today. One site I am working on has basic bios, and many of the girls seem to last less than a year.

   So building a future for them is meaningless. They know deep inside they ain’t sticking around, from the first moment they got banged on camera and spent the rest of the night crying, drinking, and puking. For them, the future is how fast they can get out of the door with cash, period.

10. Yes, that is true. But I’ve also seen the same from more than a few that have been in the biz for a number of years.

11. YES! A girl that has been banged to living hell filming some very jerkable porn scene and has to drink and cry all night and then puke afterwards. I love it! gagging chicks are the best!

12. Another good article by the great Mike South ! No, a union would just take advantage of the performers and charge all the dues and crap that would go with it. Porn performers don’t have much of a life and a future anyways. They all just want to make quick money and do blow and never save anyways. Back to my Manachevitz wine here in Scottsdale,Az.

13. A porn performer (male or female) that is so traumatized by fucking in a porn scene that he/she feels the need to cry for hours and get drunk/loaded to numb themselves from sexual shame doesn’t need to be continuing in the industry. That doesn’t turn me on in the slightest. I guess you are kinkier than I, Crunk — and that is quite a feat. It may be possible that a chickie chose the wrong scene to start with and with a better job of research and scene selection would be able to turn it around after being upset with her first scene but if a new performer has to get drunk/loaded to either deal with a scene’s aftermath or before a scene to be able to perform he/she doesn’t belong in adult entertainment.

    Jamie, I would suggest taking a full bottle of Manischewitz, draining out one wine glass of it, replacing the removed wine with liquid Immodium — filling it almost to the top, replace the cap, shake well to blend, add a nude picture of a warthog (NOT RON JEREMY, he is known as a HEDGEHOG, not a WARTHOG) and a strap-on the size of Jack Hammer’s dick, then send it to Uncle Peg with a notation on the box stating it is from the guys and girl (Lurk) at the Mike South Institute in celebration of his wife Aunt Peg not going to jail for her latest criminal conviction and wishing him many more blow jobs and pegging sessions from her. Don’t let on that the wine is spiked with five ounces of Immodium. Watch Uncle Peg get pissed and get arrested getting loaded on the “hard drug of the night” and trying to find someone to smash a beer bottle over his/her head or smack him/her with a flip flop, hopefully he smacks Hop Sing with that flip flop. 🙂

14. Sure. Email me Pacifics and will put urs up too. ;). That’s simple enough isn’t it?

15. if you are not a performer or do not work in some way inside this industry, please for the moment do not voice your opinions of what we need or do not need inside this industry. For you can only guess what we need and you do not know. We are needing to make this decisions on her own without outside influences. So I believe what Mike was trying to say is “Performers please pay attention to your future we are trying to help you, we are or were performers too. We know more than anybody what your future holds, and if you don’t change things it’s not pretty.”

    So please take this time now to join with us to make a difference to make a change for each and everyone of our future. The time is now.

    http://Www.entertainmentAdultunion.com

    Click on the “Join Free” Button 🙂

16. @phyllisha

    “We are needing to make this decisions on her own without outside influences.”

    Is this about specific ‘performer needs’ or opions regarding what the union needs to do?

    If the union intends to rely soley upon industry experience good luck lasting beyond the first required DOL reporting period to maintain ‘official union’ status.

17. As supportive as I am trying to be this whole we know best attitude doesn’t wash with me. Open discussion and transparency wins out every time, you nor I have a lock on good ideas, they can come from even unlikely sources. The people here are people who can give you very good very real world advice. I caution you to be very careful about assuming who they are or what they don’t know. Many of them can be of HUGE help to the Union, don’t be dismissive.

18. I have to agree on this one, Mike. Whether Phyllisha likes it or not outside opinions are necessary here. None of the people involved have prior experience with a union (as far as anyone knows), it will take people that are experienced in union affairs and union law to have any chance of succeeding. Just because Lurk and I are not industry performers (and Mike hasn’t performed or worked in the Chatsworth based industry in many years) doesn’t make us deaf, dumb and stupid about industry affairs. I will note again that Phyllisha has not disclosed any prior connection with the adult film industry nor has she claimed to be a current or former performer. That being the case her request that outsiders keep their mouths shut is hypocritical, asinine and ill conceived. This behavior is likely to turn off many people that could help, I know it is making me much less likely to support them. It will likely make non-performer industry moderates (from past statements IMO not likely to be completely against a performer union although I haven’t discussed the issue with them) such as Jacky St. James and Porno Dan less likely to support the union as well. You are going to need some directors and producers supporting your cause to get anywhere with your union, this attitude won’t get that support. You need to understand that compromise is the only way you will get anywhere, a hard line against outsiders will doom your union to a quick, undignified death.

19. Not sure if this Phyllisha is the Phyllisha Anne that worked in porn but she was also known as Bethany Alexander. She did work in the 1990s – 2000s and she did quite a bit of IR work. She also produced and directed if I remember right so she worked both sides of the camera.

20. Why don’t you just google me? Doing movies since 1989. Both behind and in front of the camera, With over 800 films. I have been a dancer before then for a decade as well as had a 900 number and everything else in adult entertainment you could think of.
    Yes I was married to adult star Alex Sanders. And it’s not “my Union”. It’s “our union” (if your apart of our industry that is).

    And for that as stated above being my background / resume; how do you soppose I got a Union to finally pass with the Dept. Of Labor when people have been trying to do this since the beginning of time, through outside influences? No. By listening to my heart and by thinking For myself.

    As we are asking all performers and industry members to now do as well. To think for yourselves! Think of your future! Join and help us change the future for the better!

    http://Www.entertainmentadultunion.com. Join now!

21. I will take your word for it, Karma (although I will Google her anyway as I am interested in seeing if I remember watching any of the over 800 films she was in over the years). I think I recall hearing the name Bethany Alexander once or twice over the years (I wasn’t familiar with her, however). I stand by the rest of what I said above. I will note that the benefits in long-time union shops like the major car manufacturers were built up over many contracts taking decades of improving benefits and working conditions a little at a time. That is what it will take in the adult industry as well, you won’t get everything at once. Compromise is the key to success, it is better to come to an agreement on some of what the union membership wants than to try to force it all on producers at once, call a strike/get locked out by producers and get the whole union membership blackballed from the industry and/or the majority of the industry deciding to leave the country and film elsewhere where the demands are less onerous. Then you push the envelope a bit farther during the next contract negotiation period. Union negotiators and management will also need to realize the economic realities of making adult films — there isn’t a whole lot of profit in the business right now and producers will not agree to terms that will not allow them to survive. Both producers and performers are going to have to come to a compromise or the adult industry as we know it is not going to survive. I cite some examples in a prior comment.

22. “We are needing to make this decisions on her own without outside influences.”

    Isn’t that why this industry is in the state it is in?

    I think she really means, “Please stop trying to inform performers about how ridiculous this all sounds. We can’t scam the dumbasses if they know it is a scam.”

23. I did that last night, Phyllisha. IAFD has 443 entries for you performing (records for adult films are spotty for the time period before approximately 1997-1998 so most of the films you were in between 1990 and 1998 are probably not on there and copies of most of them probably don’t even exist anymore unless someone that bought a VHS copy has them in their film collections). You more than qualify as an industry performer. I didn’t do that earlier because I thought you were brought in by a unionizing organization to form the union (yes, those exist, last I knew there was one from both the AFL-CIO and SEIU). I was wondering why the serious mistakes were being made, now I know — you were in over your head and just didn’t know. I stand by the rest of what I said minus you not having been a performer in the industry. Good luck, you are going to need it. Mike Quasar is making daily twitter posts showing pay stubs and saying what a good guy he is while denigrating the unionization effort, he has a lot of connections and will likely give his talking points to everyone he knows in the industry. At this point I am almost neutral on the issue of unionization but as my earlier comment shows I think improvements can be made in performer-producer relations, many of my suggestions won’t even cost that much. If a union can do that without decimating the industry maybe it is a reasonable thing to do. However, it is a very easy thing to fuck up if negotiations and union affairs are not done reasonably.

24. Czpram
    I am with you on that ! This industry is sooo full of A list retards, I guy like me can make millions on their ignorance.

    Lots of “tards” !

25. The main problem with this union is the transient nature of the industry. A very small percentage of performers will have any ‘future’ in this industry. A very large percentage of all performers last less than a year, most even less than that. Electing a president who was not even on the ballot raises a few questions too.

26. Jilted. Good to see you back. Agree that the transient nature of the industry is an issue, however, that’s also true in mainstream. Remember that there are very few people who will have a career in film and television, but anyone with a speaking line, no matter how brief the scene and no matter that its going to be the only thing they’ll ever appear in, has to have a SAG card. The way mainstream handles this is that you have to generate a certain amount of income per year to be eligible for benefits, like health insurance, and you have to have a minimum number of years at that rate to become vested in the pension plan – even though you and your employer have to contribute in your name. Example: I was a member of the Screen Writers Guild for 10 years; I earned enough to qualify for health insurance in five of those years; but I only earned enough to qualify for full participation in the pension plan for 3 of those years, so I never vested. Thus, I only earned a death benefit – and one of just $10,000.

    If the porn union is able to create a benefits plan for performers, it can easily do something similar to that – provide access to a health plan and create a pension plan – either a traditional pension plan where employers contribute something like 10 to 18% (in mainstream, it’s 18%) but which members have to be vested in order to access; or create a 401(K) or equivalent into which employers contribute a base – 5% is common – and a match of up to 4%. That’s something a porn performer can take with them no matter how short their stay.

    I think the biggest benefit the union could provide, if it mimics mainstream, is a standard contract with minimum rates that are enforced, and some kind of residual. Think of what someone like Seka, Marilyn Chambers or Ginger Lynn might have earned over the years from people downloading their scenes from their prime.

27. Good to see ya Jilted; great points BT

    My experience is food service and construction, both have the same issues. Can’t even guess how many worker checks sit in a drawer for a year then get sent to the state as unclaimed funds after they’re returned by the post office.

28. @phyllisha

    “how do you soppose I got a Union to finally pass with the Dept. Of Labor when people have been trying to do this since the beginning of time, through outside influences? No. By listening to my heart and by thinking For myself.”

    Excluding outside influences, listening to your heart and thinking for yourself is all well and good on a personal level not so well when it comes to running a organization.

    Your heart and best thinking are limited to your experience so excluding outside influences explains the pie in the sky ideas about health insurance to cover testing. I do listen to outside influences because they know things I don’t and act as a great heads up. For example a recent article in the Washington Post about insurers wanting to drop coverage for annual pelvic exams to coverage for an exam once every three or five years. Those insurers are outside the industry and they WILL influence decisions the union needs to make.

29. @phyllisha, I am going to give you my thoughts, many of which are shared with my industry colleagues. These may come across as harsh but I feel that my honest and unfiltered opinion will be more helpful than tiptoeing around the issues. I applaud your vision, appreciate your efforts, and commend you for getting as far as you have. I hope you will take my comments as constructive criticism.

    In my opinion you have a long way to go before I would consider or recommend anyone to join this union. Your behavior here has moved my opinion from on the fence to not at this time. First of all it would be nice if you introduced yourself and not assume that anyone knows your roll in the union or the industry. Your grammar makes it much harder to take you seriously, not that mine is perfect, but as the founder of this union your speech now represents more than just yourself and I would prefer that you have someone else review your posts before posting on this site, the union’s, and anywhere else you are discussing the union. The writing on the union site is painful to read at times and I don’t understand why it hasn’t been proofread and fixed by now.

    On to the other issues I have.

    1. The breadth of coverage. This union covers those in the “Porn” business as well as “Escorts” as well as many other adult related workers. Though many adult performers also escort I don’t see mixing a grey area industry (Escorting/Prostitution) that is not considered truly legal in most places in the US should be mixed in with the Porn industry which is legal in most of the US. I believe prostitution should be legal throughout the US but currently it is not and I think there should be a separate advocacy group for making escorting 100% legitimate; but I think a union for legal adult workers will be hindered by this addition.

    2. Transparency – We’ve heard a lot right hear on Mike south about the lack of transparency. Specifically it sounds like your officers were not voted in but instead were appointed even though there were nominations, ballets, and voting taking place. We’ve yet to hear the story from the union about who is involved in running it, how they were chosen, what their responsibilities are, or any other information that would make me feel like this union is fair and unbiased. I would not consider joining this union until I see Mike get that interview with Sean Michaels.

    3. A clear agenda, goals, and priorities.
    For example, it is rumored the union wants to raise the required age to be involved in porn to 21. I can’t verify weather this is true or not and would not consider joining until this is addressed and I don’t expect any performer under the age of 21 who have heard these rumors would be interested in joining either. Now Sean Michaels has been quoted saying he will be pushing a mandate for restricting performers to being over 21, and I am not sure whether the union is with him on this or if this is a personal goal yet to be adopted by the union.

    I’d like to see expansion of testing to cover at least herpes 2 as a primary goal as that could be attainable and get massive support. We’ve got people who know they have it hiding it, we’ve got people who find out they have it leaving the industry, we’ve got people who think that other people may have it refusing to do shoots with people rumored to have it, and those same people don’t even know if they have it. You have producers doing the best to not expose the talent they use to herpes 2 even though they don’t know if their regular talent has. It’s just all around crazy. There is now a test for Herpes 2 that doesn’t ever give false positives, and while it may not be the quickest in detection, it is accurate, and would allow producers and performers to make more informed decisions. Though if you talk to talent testing they say all tests for herpes 2 give false positives and wouldn’t detect it if someone had herpes 2 in their mouth and is therefore useless(all of which is untrue). Cutting Edge Testing offers herpes 2 testing as a reasonably priced add-on that some producers and performers are taking advantage of. Many performers are mistakenly thinking Talent Testing’s “Gold Standard Panel” is protecting them from all std/sti’s including herpes 2. Simply providing STD testing options and time periods for effectiveness on your website would go a long way in helping new talent, experienced performers, and producers in making better decisions that would lead to better safety. Of course I don’t know what the union’s opinion and goals in regards to testing are except for what seems like a pipe dream of $30/month insurance to cover testing. Of course performers and producers should know that the HIV test currently offered only clears people that were exposed 10 days before the test was performed and that performers need to stay safe for a couple weeks before shooting to make sure they aren’t exposing their co-workers to risks. There is a wave of producers and performers that now think that oral sex without testing is ok, and this is being backed up by talent testing, while there are more and gonorrhea and chlamydia infections taking performers out of work for weeks at a time, which can be devastating as many performers live from shoot to shoot. Once again, I don’t see these points discussed on the union site nor do I see or know what their opinion is on it. This union can be of service immediately by just aggregating and clearly explaining all this type of information.

    These are my opinions and though they are shared by some of the performers and producers I know in the industry they may not be by everyone, however addressing these “Hot topics” and providing safety and legal information on your website could go a long way in generating support for this union. I will continue to track the union’s progress and hope that soon I can feel comfortable joining and supporting it.

30. I see Remi LaCroix is not making many friends today with drama vs. Dani Daniels, Jada Stevens, etc…. These are the kind of people you are looking to step up and help get the Union going?

31. I thought I would take a moment and answer all of these concerns one by one even though they are a few weeks old. I apologize I could not do it sooner, this is the first chance I have been given to catch up on things. We are working very very hard every day on creating the foundation and the correct structure of this Union. To all of us this is a new and exciting journey in life, so we are trying to make sure we have this foundation good and solid before we continue to make steps forward. We do realize that perhaps this step is taking to long, but we are figuring that, as important as this will hopefully become to each and everyone of us, that this is a step we need to make sure is done to the best of our ability at this current time. We have a very very long list of goals and everyday the list seems to grow longer, with building our foundation we are beginning to create committees in which a team will help in reaching and work towards achieving each of these goals. We are reaching out to this industry and gratefully accepting all that’s willing to jump in and help. The more of us who are willing to take the time to help the faster we will be able to reach these goals. I will make sure we place these goals on the website so that is clear in what they are. Love Phyllisha Anne

32. We appointed Sean michales because we felt he is well respected, he is currently working as a performer in the industry and well, he is Sean Michaels 🙂 And anyone who has had the opportunity to meet and work with Sean, knows what a gentleman he truely is. Evan stone had decided not to take the position because he wanted a higher one. As stated in the constitution of this Union “until, in which time this Union is created, the officers can be appointed” because, well we have to start somewhere.

    We are not focusing all our attention, at this very moment, in attraction performers to join so we can collect money. We are not at this time collecting any dues or asking for anything, except to join and please per take in the creation of something that will become incredable and benefit all our futures.

    We have been focusing on other things instead, and as stated above we will place all of our goals on the website so that it is clear of our intentions, even though those goals seem to grow daily.

    The elections were a mess, this I truely admit, but it was our first and we have still have a lot to learn and now we know what not to do, correct?

    So trying to scam a performer is the complete opposite of what we are achieving. For everyone of the officers and board members, in which will be announced the moment it is government approved, are all performers themselves, why would they spend all this time trying to scam you instead of help you? Each one are people that have been in this industry for a good amount of time, in which we all should know. So it is not a bunch of people not ever involved with this industry who do not understand the unique needs of this industry.

    I place the two advertisements on the website to take up space as so not to be picked on, but yet you have found a way to make that an issue anyways. :). So yes if anyone would like anything placed up there please send me an email we would be happy to put it up and no there is no charge to do so.

33. Mike South, thank you so much for always speaking the truth and voicing your true Opionons, thank you for your Critism, as well for your guidance. And thank you for having the balls to say a lot of things, I wish I had the balls to say myself. Thank you for the prep talks and the motivation you keep giving us. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

34. Thank you lurking for voicing your support, with all our hearts. Thank you.

35. Thank you lurking for voicing your support, with all our hearts. Thank you

36. Jilted – we do not fell we need to demand anything, from anyone. That is not how we are trying to go about things. We are more looking for ways In which, as an industry we can all come to an agreement in which can work for everyone. Demanding that producers pay for testing is taking money out of the production cost to shot the movie, so that can not be a great idea. But if we had health insurance that could cover the cost of the testing plus, performers have insurance in case we do catch something, it seems to be a win win situation. Except for perhaps the testing centers. But they have made enough money from us, in my opionion, anyways.

    The piracy link was placed up by someone who had control of the website, in which that person no longer has control of website so that link has been gone now for awhile. Unless, perhaps I am missing something?

    A credit union has been offered to us, our very very own and that is another thing we have been working on. But it’s not that leasy because as we stand now, our industry links us as a “high risk” profile. Therefore we have to start there first, working with the EOCC to create a “can not discriminate against your source of legal income act.” So that your job title can not hold you back from things as loans, as long as you qualify otherwise.

37. Common sense – For anyone to state they will not hire someone because of the union is highly, federally illegal. And that is a law that has been in effect since the beginning of Unions. So I would hope, no one would ever make such a statement. :).

    A group of talent are a young age, yes this is true, but not all of us, not the majority of us, if you actually stop to really look. So perhaps this Union will not be for those performers, and that is okay too. But for the performers who are making this a career, or have noticed how much time has gone by and this is still the business in which they are still in. It is those performers who we are trying to look out for, it is those performers in which we have in mind.

    For performers that are putting their life at risk, if you really think about it, each and every time they do a shoot, and then have nothing at the end to show for it, because there was no one there to guide them.

    I think with the numbers this Union is achieving, without even trying, shall soon hopefully prove to those in this industry that believe performers are not worth anything, that we actually do have the mentality to succeed after all. Who knew? Eh ? 🙂

38. Raw Alex – now see, that’s what hurts my heart. Why would anyone want to take advantage of someone who would, after a scene leave crying, puking, and running for the door? This business is not made for everyone, for some it hurts their soul, and you can see it the minute you meet them, it is writen all over their face and in their eyes. Aren’t their enough performers coming through the door everyday, as you state, that when you see a performer such as this, that perhaps some one should explain to her the truth of what she is about to do, and shoot someone else instead? And Don’t you dare make that statement , well that isn’t my job, she walked in the door by herself, I’m not her dad. Because that’s the problem with this industry these days. No body cares about anybody else. Don’t you guys remember when we were a family? Where we looked out for each other? The only thing that makes us not that way to day is that shit right there.

    So what if our family got bigger, that just means thier is more of us to love ????

39. Crinkle – ….. Ugh!

40. Sean Tompkins – I know you can not resist because I am becoming your favorite subject eh? But it makes me smile that you are watching us closely, and as always your are looking for everything and anything for you to point, poke, and make fun of. And that’s ok. It take all types to make the world go around. And every time you make a Critism statement you actually are helping, because it gets my energy going and my blood boiling and it lights a fire under my ass to make sure I work even harder 🙂

    So thank you as well Mr. Thompkins :).

    I wish we had a chance to meet while you were in la, perhaps we will have a chance again.