At a time of historic economic crisis, the Screen Actors Guild has launched a campaign to strike, after contract negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers broke down in November.
At the heart of the dispute are DVD residuals and compensation for new media extras such as TV webisodes. Among SAG’s demands is union coverage of any production that is made exclusively for the Internet and rights to residuals should those programs be repeated in the future. The union also wants to benefit financially from product placement, as well as the power to say no to, say, holding a can of Coke in a movie or TV series.
Strike authorization ballots have been mailed to the 120,000+ SAG members, and will be tabulated on Friday, January 23. A yes vote by 75% of members voting is required to pass the measure, which would authorize SAG’s national board of directors to call a strike.
SAG members, who have been working without a contract since June, are deeply divided, making it tougher for union leaders to present a united front as they try to muster support for the strike authorization.
A number of A-list stars are against the strike. George Clooney, Tom Hanks, Sally Field and former union president Richard Masur all signed a petition urging the guild to cancel its plans for the vote.
Martin Sheen, Mel Gibson and Holly Hunter are among the A-listers who are for a strike.
The New York board, which comprises 14 representatives on SAG’s 71-member national board, issued a statement calling a strike authorization “irresponsible.”
SAG President Alan Rosenberg said he was “shocked and troubled” by the New York board’s request to cancel the strike authorization vote, but agreed to their demand to schedule an emergency national board meeting to discuss “the ramifications of this extraordinarily destructive and subversive action.”
Meanwhile, a group of film professionals has launched their own campaign in hopes of preventing a strike, which would potentially cripple an already troubled industry where production on films has largely come to a halt.
SaveTheBiz.org is an “informal but devoted coalition of film professionals: members of the film community who work in front of the camera and behind the scenes, providing the expertise, equipment and services that help make productions happen.”
“We do not take any position as to who deserves credit or blame for the current dispute,” the group says. “We merely plead for an immediate resolution so that the industry can get back to work.”
Save the Biz video below.