SAG pleas against AFTRA deal

I’ll give a brief update on this story’s history, for the ones who didn’t follow.

The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) started negotiations with the studios about new contracts two months ago. The talks dragged on and on, until the studios were scheduled to talk to the AFTRA (TV and Radio) about renewing their contracts. These talks were delayed a couple of times in favor of the SAG negotiations, but later the SAG had to make way for the AFTRA. At that point, the SAG still didn’t have a deal. Far from it actually, with main disputes about DVD residuals and so on.

But where the SAG saw major problems, the AFTRA saw no problems at all. In a couple of weeks they made a new deal with the studios, putting extra pressure on the SAG. Needless to say, they were not pleased and criticized the union for their lack of effort.

Back to last weekend, the SAG is about to strike back. They have about 122,000 members, where the AFTRA has 70,000. The two unions share about 44,000 members and the SAG is going to target them to oppose the AFTRA deal. The SAG committee voted 13 to 10 this Friday, to educate their members on the AFTRA deal with a +$100,000 campaign.

But with the impact of the last strike still felt today, some members might prefer work over a better deal. Paul Christie, SAG’s national board member said, “Asking dual cardholders to vote down a contract for one of the unions that they work under is possibly the most idiotic course to date.“

This story (and feud) is far from over. But with at least a dozen key differences between the SAG and the studios, another strike seems inevitable.