The chances of a strike by actors shutting down Hollywood (again) has probably been reduced with the ratification of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists contract yesterday. The AFTRA ratification means that the Screen Actor’s Guild, which opposed the contract and urged its members who are also members of AFTRA, likely does not have enough support to authorize a strike if they can’t agree to a contract with producers. Or, maybe they do.
The contract was ratified with a vote of 62.4%. That’s less than the 80% these deals usually get but more than the 0% that SAG was hoping for. In order to authorize a strike, SAG needs 75% of its members to agree. That’s a lot of percentages, but the bottom line is that with the writers, directors, and now some actors having agreed to similar deals, it is unlikely SAG will have either the internal or external support to stop production on Lost again. That’s all we really care about, right?
The SAG-AFTRA division was not healed by the vote and both sides spent the aftermath calling each other doody heads. AFTRA President Roberta Reardon was quoted in Variety saying, "SAG ran a well-funded and ferocious disinformation campaign that created a lot of confusion. We are the ones who won the moral victory." I would have loved it if AFTRA had asked the guy who played Uncle Leo on Seinfeld to show up at their press conference and say “I’m an old man, I’m confused.” Then again, maybe that guy is a SAG supporter, like Sean Penn. Reardon also took issue with SAG attacking AFTRA…by attacking SAG, “To those of us for whom labor solidarity is more than just a slogan, the idea that politically-motivated leaders of one union would use their members' dues to attack another union is unconscionable. Working people do not benefit when their union is under attack."
Not to be outdone, SAG President Alan Rosenberg said "We will continue to address the issues of importance to actors that AFTRA left on the table and we remain committed to achieving a fair contract for SAG actors.” He also claimed that AFTRA won ratification by pumping up the all important DJ vote. SAG still has to negotiate their own contract and has not met with producers since June 30th when they were given a deal similar to the one AFTRA (and the WGA and DGA) approved. The point of contention centers around new media and DVD residuals and SAG feels the AFTRA deal did not get enough in those areas. Since no one wants another strike and SAG doesn’t have enough support to get one regardless, it looks like a deal will get done with SAG in the next few months and we can have more American Pie sequels in perpetuity. Or at least until the next contract.
