SAG HARDLINERS IN PYRRHIC VICTORY

SAG HARDLINERS IN PYRRHIC VICTORY

The possibility of another strike shutting down the entertainment industry in Hollywood appeared more remote Tuesday following a 30-hour battle among factions within the Screen Actors Guild over whether to retain the union's hard-line chief negotiator and executive director Doug Allen. While a vote was effectively filibustered by members of the Membership First faction at a meeting of the union's board of directors, East Coast members and the Unite for Strength moderates in the West Coast presented a show of strength that effectively left Allen powerless. Some analysts predicted that Allen would resign in the aftermath of the battle. "I can't imagine him weathering this political storm to wield any significant influence in the future," David Smith, a labor economist at Pepperdine University, told today's (Wednesday) Los Angeles Times . "Even though they weren't able to remove him, they essentially took away a chunk of his power." However, union President Alan Rosenberg voiced anger over the effort to oust Allen, insisting that Allen had "done a phenomenal job." However, Rosenberg himself may now face an uncertain future as head of the union as a result of what some industry observers are suggesting has been a misguided effort to secure concessions from the industry for new media work that are likely to result in less income than what actors would already have earned had they agreed to a similar contract already signed by the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and other industry unions. Stephen Diamond, a labor law professor at Santa Clara University, who had once been considered for Allen's post, told Backstage magazine "The only way to manage an exit strategy here is to change the team and bring in a delegation of anti-strike A-listers to sit at the table."

14/01/2009