SAG Leadership Seeks Strike Authorization Vote

LOS ANGELES, October 2:
The Screen Actors Guild’s negotiating committee is asking the union’s national
board to seek a strike authorization vote, after refusing to accept the final
offer from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).

The negotiating committee
says that a strike authorization vote “is necessary to overcome the employers’
intransigence.” The committee wants the national board to authorize a vote and “strongly”
support strike action. The committee says that the board should “endorse an
educational campaign advocating a ‘yes’ membership vote,” so that it can call a
strike if it is “necessary and unavoidable to do so.”

SAG’s negotiators also
said they are “willing and able” to continue negotiations with the AMPTP. The
producers alliance has said that it won’t come back to the table to renegotiate
the key contentious matters of new-media jurisdiction and new-media residuals.

The AMPTP responded to SAG’s
move, noting: “Is this really the time for anyone associated with the
entertainment business to be talking about going on strike? Not only is the
business suffering from recent economic conditions, but if ever there was a
time when Americans wanted the diversions of movies and television, it is now.
The DGA, WGA and AFTRA reached agreement on comparable terms months ago, during
far better economic times, and it is unrealistic for SAG negotiators now to
expect even better terms during this grim financial climate. This is the harsh
economic reality, and no strike will change that reality.”

—By Mansha Daswani