Geekshow

SAG Seeks Strike Authorization

Remember that action packed edge of your seat thriller from 2007? The Writers Strike was the biggest hit of the year and it seems that the AMPTP have decided to bless us with the sequel. That’s right, 2008 will bring us (*drum roll*) The Actors Strike!

In a move toward Hollywood’s second strike in a year, the Screen Actors Guild will seek a strike authorization from its 120,000 members.

“Our leadership was optimistic that federal mediation would help to move our negotiations forward, but despite the Guild’s extraordinary efforts to reach agreement, the mediation was adjourned shortly before 1:00 a.m. today,” SAG said. “Management continues to insist on terms we cannot responsibly accept on behalf of our members.”

The Alliance of Motion Pictures blasted back at SAG late Saturday morning by asserting the guild’s out of touch with the industry’s concerns and noting that it’s the only Hollywood union that hasn’t closed a master contract deal this year.

“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,” the AMPTP said. “The tone deafness of SAG is stunning.”

SAG national exec director Doug Allen told Daily Variety that it’s the companies are out of step. “It’s ironic that they would use the word ‘tone deaf’ when they’ve been tone deaf when it comes to listening to the concerns of working actors,” he added.

No timetable’s been set for the authorization vote but SAG could be on strike on primetime and features as early as the Jan. 11 Golden Globes. SAG would need at leaset three weeks to conduct the strike authorization vote but it said Saturday it would launch a “full-scale education campaign” in support of a “yes” vote.

For SAG to strike, the authorization must receive support from 75% of members who vote on the referendum. SAG’s strategy of holding out for a better deal received backing of 87% of slightly over 10,000 members voting in a September postcard poll — which the AMPTP derided as meaningless — but it’s uncertain if SAG members would offer the same level of support amid a worsening economy.

SAG last struck in 2000, when it stayed out for six months against the ad industry.

SAG had sought the mediation on Oct. 19, rather than seeking a strike authorization at that point. SAG said Saturday that seeking a strike authorization is the only way it can force the companies to revise the terms of the deal.

“We have already made difficult decisions and sacrifices in an attempt to reach agreement,” the guild said. “Now it’s time for SAG members to stand united and empower the national negotiating committee to bargain with the strength of a possible work stoppage behind them.”

The cratering of the SAG-AMPTP mediation comes a year after Gonzalez tried unsuccessfully to prevent the WGA strike. That work stoppage hit the TV business hard while studio features were largely unscathed due to having stockpiled plenty of scripts.

Should SAG strike, the studios will be somewhat more vulnerable since they have been planning to ramp up production at the start of next year.

As with the SAG negotiations during April through July, the key issue keeping both sides far apart during the mediation remained compensating actors for new-media work and re-use on the Web. SAG’s “threshold” issues — announced two months ago — include new-media jurisdiction for all productions, rather than the $15,000-per-minute budget threshold the majors propose; securing residual fees for made-for-Internet productions when those productions are reused on new-media platforms; and continuing force majeure protections for actors, which the majors have sought to eliminate.

For its part, the AMPTP’s contended repeatedly that it won’t change the final offer to SAG — issued June 30 as SAG’s master contract expired — and stressed that the offer’s terms are similar to those in this year’s deals with the WGA, DGA, AFTRA, IATSE and casting directors.

The AMPTP’s estimated that its three-year offer to SAG would result in $250 million in pay increases to thesps over the life of the deal. A calculator on its Web site said Saturday that SAG members have lost out on $33 million in pay gains since the expiration.

The collapse of talks comes on the heels of the companies reaching a three-year deal with IATSE three days ago. At that point, the AMPTP said that all six labor agreements would keep the industry at work, allow producers to experiment with new media, and give everyone in the industry a stake in the success of new and emerging markets.

SAG derided that assertion Saturday and pointed the WGA’s recent accusation — denied by the AMPTP — that the companies aren’t living up to terms of the WGA deal.

“We remain committed to avoiding a strike but now more than ever we cannot allow our employers to experiment with our careers,” the guild said. “The WGA has already learned that the new media terms they agreed to with the AMPTP are not being honored. We cannot allow our employers to undermine the futures of our members and their families.”

The final decision on striking would rest with the national board, where control shifted to a less assertive coalition in September elections and away from the more aggressive Membership First faction. The moderates campaigned during the summer on the platform that Membership First had bungled the negotiations by alienating AFTRA, which ratified its primetime deal in July.

From Variety