SAG Members Ratify New Contract

LOS ANGELES: The members of the Screen Actors Guild have voted to accept a new two-year contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) by a 78-percent margin.

The contract, more than a year in the making, took effect today and runs through June 30, 2011. It provides more than $105 million in wages, increased pension contributions and other gains, and establishes a template for SAG coverage of new-media formats. A little more than 35 percent of the union’s 110,000 members returned their ballots on the contract vote.

"The membership has spoken and has decided to work under the terms of this contract that many of us, who have been involved in these negotiations from the beginning, believe to be devastatingly unsatisfactory," said Alan Rosenberg, SAG’s president. "[Today] I will be contacting the elected leadership of the other talent unions with the hope of beginning a series of pre-negotiation summit meetings in preparation for 2011. I call upon all SAG members to begin to ready themselves for the battle ahead."

The union’s interim national executive director, David White, added: “This decisive vote gets our members back to work with immediate pay raises and puts SAG in a strong position for the future. Preparation for the next round of negotiations begins now. Our members can expect more positive changes in the coming months as we organize new work opportunities, repair and reinvigorate our relationships with our sister unions and industry partners, and continue to improve the Guild’s operations.”

The talks began with the AMPTP back on April 15, 2008. After a series of stalled negotiations, rallies and infighting at the union over a strike action, a deal was finally reached in April of this year.