AFTRA Actors Ratify New Deal, Against SAG’s Wishes

AFTRA is a union made up of 77,000 actors from television and radio, which includes 44,000 members that also belong to the SAG. Recently, the SAG began pushing for AFTRA members to vote down a deal that the guild leaders had reached in principle with Hollywood studios. Instead, yesterday AFTRA ratified the vote with a 63% approval rating. This deal undercuts a lot of SAG’s powers to strike, and is good news for entertainment fans everywhere.

I personally hope that all actors get the deals that they deserve. But work stoppage hurts everyone involved. So I am glad to see that this happened in order to make the liklihood a little smaller. The SAG can still call for a strike vote, but losing the support of a majority of it’s AFTRA members could be a barometer for how things would turn out in that regard. Continue reading this post for more details.

Actors union ratifies deal with Hollywood studios

By RYAN NAKASHIMA

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists said Tuesday its members ratified a three-year contract with Hollywood studios, but a rival actors union that campaigned against the deal said it wasn’t ready to settle.

AFTRA said 62 percent of voting members approved its prime-time TV contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, a deal that will go in effect retroactive to July 1.

Federation President Roberta Reardon blamed the larger Screen Actors Guild for confusing its members with an "unprecedented disinformation campaign" that jeopardized the deal. A previous AFTRA contract covering soaps and talk shows received 93 percent support.

The guild claimed that approval for the deal would undermine its own talks, which are ongoing.

SAG leaders "must be held accountable for this ridiculous waste of members’ dues money, including my own, in attacking another union’s contract," Reardon told reporters Tuesday. "In the face of that kind of attack, the percentage we ratified this by is really good."

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