Heightening fears of an actors strike this summer, one of Hollywood's two major performers unions voted Saturday to break off its 27-year joint bargaining pact with its sister, the Screen Actors Guild, leaving each to negotiate separate new contracts with the major studios.
The 11th-hour move by the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists is the latest thunderclap in Hollywood's winter of discontent, which has seen the television industry upended by a 100-day strike by screenwriters.
It injects a new element of uncertainty in the television and movie industry by raising the possibility of an actors walkout this summer, just as some shows are returning to the air after a three-month absence and the movie industry is trying to get back on its feet. Such a strike could be a further blow to the local economy, already coping with a housing downturn and possible recession.
Hollywood's talent guilds, which represent writers, directors and actors, have pushed to center stage in this year's contract negotiations the issue of how their members are paid in the digital era. Now that directors and writers have reached new three-year contracts with the studios, the industry had hoped the actors could peacefully negotiate a new deal before their contract expires June 30.
But SAG and AFTRA, the two unions that represent actors, have been at loggerheads over a variety of issues, including each union's contract goals and jurisdictional contests over TV shows. Nonetheless, the two unions have usually been able to set aside their differences long enough to negotiate together on behalf of their members.
Not this time.
AFTRA's move to break off from SAG seemed to be timed for maximum effect, especially given that the two unions had unanimously approved joint proposals for a new film and prime-time television contract that were expected to be presented to the studios in the coming weeks.
A rift between the two unions now could undermine SAG's leverage to wring the best possible concessions from the studios in their new contract as AFTRA, whose members work mostly in television, pursues its own agenda.
At the same time, it could embolden SAG, which has 120,000 members, to call a strike, because its negotiations would be led by the union's hard-liners. They have promised to press for higher residuals for actors from the sale of DVDs, an issue AFTRA has not embraced and one the studios insist is not even on the table.
