SAG Negotiations Not Going Well

The Screen Actors Guild, trying to negotiate a new contract with Hollywood studios, are concerned that American Federation of Television and Radio Artists' new agreement has hampered their own negotiations, Entertainment Weekly reports.

SAG, whose current contract expires June 30, has requested that AFTRA suspend a membership vote on their tentative contract until SAG has reached their own agreement, to which AFTRA has balked.

"We believe that the tentative AFTRA deal and its pending ratification, coming as it does within several days of SAG's June 30 contract deadline, is a distraction that the employers are using to delay significant progress in our negotiations," SAG President Alan Rosenberg wrote on the union's Web site.

"Delaying ratification of the AFTRA contract could benefit all actors. AFTRA members, too, would benefit by increased leverage in our negotiations and through any favored nations clauses SAG might be able to achieve that would provide improvements in the AFTRA deal."

Since over one-third of SAG members are also members of AFTRA, the board of directors at AFTRA fear that SAG will attempt to use their influence to get these members to delay a vote on the AFTRA contract. Membership vote on the contract is expected in approximately three weeks. The agreements reached in the new deal include raises in base pay and residuals for Internet downloads.

SAG, which represents over 120,000 actors, is holding a rally today at its national headquarters in Los Angeles. The union maintains that there are several issues yet to be negotiated, including DVD residual pay, actors' consent for product integration in shows, and an increase in mileage reimbursement, an issue which hasn't been achieved in 30 years.