The University of Washington Probcast-bot and UW meteorologist Cliff Mass are both predicting an anomalously nice, mid-70s weekend, and that may give you some idea of the pull that the 70,000-strong American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, AFL-CIO has when it comes to their national convention. More than 300 AFTRA delegates will be in town from July 21st to the 23rd, for their 63rd National Convention. (Stalk them at the Westin Seattle Hotel.)

Your first question, of course, is what exactly an AFTRA does. We’re glad you asked that. AFTRA membership is made up of “recording artists, broadcasters, actors, singers, dancers and other performers who work across the spectrum of media industries including television, radio, cable, sound recordings and digital media,” and one thing that will be discussed at the convention, the Hollywood Reporter assures us, is the “ongoing SAG-AFTRA merger process.”

In a slightly different context, AFTRA National President Roberta Reardon said, “We all work for the same handful of employers. The more complex and integrated our relationships with those employers, the more leverage the Union has as a whole.” (Elections for AFTRA National Officers will be held on Saturday evening, July 23. Reardon, who has first elected in 2007, is seeking a third term.)

But AFTRA has long been amenable to a merger–it’s the toffee-nosed SAG membership that protests: they’re like the western Europeans to AFTRA’s central and eastern EU-come-latelies. Or at least, that’s how some have liked to think of it. Actually, 44,000 people hold memberships in both unions already.

It’s worth noting then that, in addition to a handful of AFL-CIO luminaries–Elizabeth H. Shuler, Secretary-Treasurer of the AFL-CIO gives the keynote–the guest speaker list includes SAG President Ken Howard.

(On a local note, there’s also U.S. Congressman Jim McDermott, of the “Twitterpated 7th”; Seattle Deputy Mayor Darryl Smith; and Seattle native and University of Washington graduate Jean Smart, whom you may remember from such television shows as Hawaii Five-O and Designing Women. The AFTRA Seattle Local is having everyone down to the Seattle Aquarium on Thursday evening for a tradition Social.)

For a more mundane-but-vital example of the union’s work, the Hollywood Reporter notes they just passed a new interactive media agreement (voting was conducted by phone and internet):

Notably, the agreement includes a new “cloud gaming fee” – a one-time payment of 15% of the session fee paid to every principal performer in a game once it is made available both on a streaming service and via sell-through (e.g., on CD/DVD or via download).

“It’s not clear that any such streaming services exist today,” adds the Reporter, but by god if anyone tries something, the union is now ready. Mathis L. Dunn, Jr., AFTRA Chief Negotiator and Assistant National Executive Director, put it like this: “Cloud gaming is where this industry is headed and AFTRA is in on the ground floor.”