SAG MEMBERS DIVIDED OVER STRIKE TALKS

SAG MEMBERS DIVIDED OVER STRIKE TALKS

Screen Actors Guild President Alan Rosenberg has expressed frustration over dissension within his union over bargaining strategy with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. In an interview with Broadcasting & Cable, Rosenberg said that he wished the members of his union stood behind their negotiators the way the members of the Writers Guild of America did theirs. The WGA, he said, "didn't get the kind of resistance from their members that we get from ours." The dissension, he indicated, is the reason that the union leadership has not called for a strike authorization vote -- despite the fact that the current contract with the AMPTP expires in two weeks. Asked when he might decided to ask SAG members to authorize a strike, Rosenberg replied, "I really don't know. ... It depends on our assessment of whether we can get it or not. I think we'd get it." In fact, the AMPTP noted Friday that if a contract is not locked in by June 30, the current "de facto strike" will simply be extended with TV and movie producers delaying production on new films and television shows until an agreement is reached.

16/06/2008