If there were any doubt that SAG leadership would do anything to avoid asking SAG membership for a strike authorization vote, just look at the course the SAG and AMPTP negotiations are taking. A story in Saturday’s Daily Variety online lays out the scenario: In a move that will unnerve Hollywood, the longtime feud between [...]

The latest email blast to SAG members from Alan Rosenberg, SAG President: June 8, 2008 Dear Members, Screen Actors Guild’s negotiating committee continued its bargaining with the AMPTP this past week. We continue to negotiate for a new contract that will be fair for actors and we are not done yet as there are still [...]

As negotiations begin again with the AMPTP, SAG is using one tool at its disposal that might put some pressure on the producers organization to settle, a waiver available only to indie productions. By signing the SAG waiver the production company agrees to comply with the eventual deal hammered out with the AMPTP. This deal [...]

SAG and the AMPTP are scheduled to resume talks today which will presumably lead to a new theatrical contract for 120,000 SAG member actors. The pressure is on SAG now that AFTRA has struck their deal. Conventional wisdom in the entertainment press, not something you’d want to stake your life on, is that the talks [...]

Dear AFTRA Member: I am delighted to report that after 17 days of some of the hardest bargaining in which I’ve participated during the past decade as a union leader, your Primetime Negotiating Committee has reached a tentative agreement with the television producers that achieves higher pay and improved working conditions for AFTRA members working [...]

AFTRA and the AMPTP have announced agreement on a new primetime contract that, per Daily Variety, ” will ease — but not eliminate — the town’s fears of an actors strike.” The announcement of the AFTRA deal comes as SAG is scheduled to reconvene meetings with AMPTP this morning. Per Daily Variety: The deal includes [...]

That seems to be the feeling in the film industry trades as talks between the two parties continued over the weekend and even over the Memorial holiday. The letter sent from AFTRA to members (published here in a previous post) struck an optimistic tone and that tone, combined with a lot of wishful thinking has [...]

This is the latest email blast from AFTRA to members regarding negotiations with the AMPTP: May 25, 2008 Dear AFTRA Member: For more than two weeks, your Primetime Negotiating Committee has been working hard to achieve significant gains in wages and working conditions for AFTRA members who work under our contract covering primetime network dramatic [...]

Due to a news blackout of the AFTRA negotiations, there isn’t much to report except that the negotiations are continuing. From a letter to AFTRA members: May 14, 2008 Dear AFTRA Member: The news blackout limits what I can tell you about the progress of our Primetime TV negotiations currently underway in Los Angeles. But [...]

The following has been pulled from the latest release inDaily Variety: AFTRA and the majors have kept their primetime contract negotiations under the radar while the Screen Actors Guild still waits in the wings. The American Federation of Television & Radio Artists is expected to reach a deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture & [...]