LOS ANGELES – The Screen Actors Guild said Saturday it will ask its members to authorize a strike after its first contract talks in four months with Hollywood studios failed despite the help of a federal mediator.
Federal mediator Juan Carlos Gonzalez adjourned the talks between SAG and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers shortly before 1 a.m. after two marathon sessions failed to produce an agreement. No new talks are scheduled.
The SAG, representing more than 120,000 actors in movies, television and other media, said in a statement that it will launch a "full-scale education campaign in support of a strike authorization."
Talks broke down after the studios sought the right to create productions for new media, such as the Internet, using nonunion actors and without paying residuals, said Doug Allen, SAG national executive director and chief negotiator.
Residuals are payments to actors that are made every time a production airs, such as TV reruns. Many SAG members rely on residuals for more than half of their income, Allen said.
"They're asking us to bless a system we believe would be the beginning of the end of residuals, and that's a very scary thought for working actors," he said.
The producers' alliance condemned the SAG decision and said it remains the only major Hollywood guild without a labor 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," a producers' statement said. "The tone-deafness of SAG is stunning."
SAG's national board has already authorized its negotiating committee to call for a strike authorization vote if mediation failed. The vote would take more than a month and require more than 75 percent approval to pass.
Screen Actors Guild to seek strike authorization - Yahoo! News
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The economy is in the shithole, the unemployment rate is set to hit a level unseen in years, and these arrogant fools want more money.
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