Drama dims chances of SAG strike
Moderates fail to oust hard-line negotiator Doug Allen but they do manage to undercut his authority over the actors union.
Only a few weeks ago Hollywood's biggest actors union appeared dangerously close to sliding into a strike that would shut down movie and TV production and further depress the region's economy. But a boardroom drama this week has drastically dimmed that prospect.
On Tuesday, a majority of the board of the Screen Actors Guild failed in an attempt to oust the union's hard-line chief negotiator, Doug Allen, as supporters closed ranks around him during a nearly 30-hour meeting that was supposed to decide his fate. On the face of it, that was a victory for Allen's supporters.
But the self-described moderates on the board achieved a broader goal: to neutralize Allen and his principal supporter, SAG President Alan Rosenberg, and effectively undercut the pair's authority over the 120,000-member union. The moderates' resolve in the face of parliamentary maneuvering by SAG's leaders, observers say, will embolden them to veto any strike that the leadership seeks.
"I can't imagine him weathering this political storm to wield any significant influence in the future," said David Smith, a labor economist at Pepperdine University. "Even though they weren't able to remove him, they essentially took away a chunk of his power."
A combination of infighting at the Screen Actors Guild, miscalculations by the union's leadership and an unforeseen deterioration of the nation's economy turned what might have been a facile resolution on a new contract with the major studios into a no-win situation that has left SAG grasping for a face-saving measure.
Allen and Rosenberg, like union firebrands of yore, have been defiant in their stand against the big studios, contending that they were colluding to rob actors of valuable earnings in the digital age. For weeks the union leaders have tried to convince the deeply divided membership that its only recourse was to show a willingness to strike.
The leaders argued that obtaining a strike authorization vote was crucial to gain leverage in negotiations, which deadlocked when SAG demanded better concessions than those clinched by other Hollywood unions.
But Allen's handling of the negotiations and his aggressive pursuit of strike authorization -- support for which was never universal and only weakened as the economy soured -- put him sharply at odds with moderate board members and high-profile actors who felt the timing was ill-advised.
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