Screen Actors Guild contract impasse could lead to strike
After failing to negotiate with studios on payment for shows distributed on the Web, the union has decided to seek a strike authorization vote from its members.
In a move that ups the ante in the stalemate between actors and the studios over a new labor contract, the Screen Actors Guild has decided to pursue a strike authorization vote from its 120,000 members.
The decision came early Saturday morning after two days of mediation failed to bridge deep differences between the sides over how actors should be paid for work that is distributed over the Internet. Actors have been working without a contract since June 30.
Although a last-minute breakthrough is still possible, the actors and the studios now look to be inching closer to a costly showdown that would have seemed remote only a month ago.
Despite a rapidly deteriorating economy and the widespread acknowledgment that an actor's strike could cripple Hollywood's production industry, the actors union appears emboldened to put the studios on the defensive. The coming weeks are a crucial period for the studios as deadlines to decide what big movies to make for 2010 are nearing and Hollywood readies for its all-important promotional event, the Academy Awards. A strike -- or the fear of one -- could wreak havoc on those plans.
But the bar is high. At issue is whether the actors guild, a notoriously fractious union, can persuade enough members to authorize its board to call a strike should negotiations fail. Strike referendums require 75% approval from those who cast ballots. Because returns typically run low, a minority of members can affect the outcome. However, the board has ultimate say about calling a strike, and recently-elected moderates -- who now exert key influence -- would probably approve a strike only if there were an overwhelming mandate from members.
To make its case, the guild said it would now begin a "full-scale education campaign" in support of a strike referendum.
"Management continues to insist on terms we cannot possibly accept on behalf of our members," the union said in a statement. "We remain committed to avoiding a strike, but now more than ever, we cannot allow our employers to experiment with our careers."
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the negotiating arm of the major studios, countered: "SAG is the only major Hollywood union that has failed to negotiate a labor deal in 2008. Now SAG is bizarrely asking its members to bail out the failed negotiating strategy with a strike vote -- at a time of historic economic crisis."
