Rob Schneider Running for SAG-AFTRA Board, Supporting Matthew Modine

By Dave McNary

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Rob Schneider is running for a SAG-AFTRA national board seat as a member of presidential candidate Matthew Modine’s progressive Membership First slate and as a representative of the union’s San Francisco branch.

Schneider is a former cast member on “Saturday Night Live” with movie credits on “Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo,” “The Hot Chick,” “The Benchwarmers,” and “Grown Ups” along with the two-season Netflix series “Real Rob.” It’s the first time he has run for a post. Voting for the seat, currently held by Kathryn Howell, will be limited to members of the San Francisco branch.

Election ballots will be mailed to dues-current members on July 29 and will be tabulated on August 28. SAG-AFTRA represents about 160,000 performers. Schneider made the announcement Thursday in a campaign post on the Membership First site.

“I’ve been a SAG member for 30 years,” he said. “In that time, I’ve witnessed changes in our industry from bad cable deals to disastrous DVD deals and I’ve seen the income of my fellow actors decline precipitously. Sadly, our profession has turned into a hobby for most actors. All of this happening while there has been an explosion of new media and billions of dollars have been made. None of this work can be made without SAG members. We need better representation to demand our fair share. Our Health and Pension and the future of our union demands that we take action.”

Modine is challenging the re-election of union president Gabrielle Carteris, who is running as the head of the Unite for Strength and United Screen Actors Nationwide tickets, which have been the ruling factions at the union for the past decade with an emphasis on pragmatic policies.

Modine issued a video endorsement of Schneider in a Tweet on Thursday: