SAG Splinter Group Launches Movement to Gain Leadership

According to the BBC, a breakaway faction within the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) has launched a movement to gain control of leadership within the union.

The group, calling itself Unite for Strength, blames the current leaders of SAG for the stalemate in contract talks with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

Unite for Strength hopes to gain a majority on SAG's national governing board in the September elections.

The group has unveiled 31 candidates, including Chicago Hope star Adam Arkin, Desperate Housewives' Doug Savant, as well as Kate Walsh and Amy Brenneman from the Grey's Anatomy spin-off, Private Practice.

Unite for Strength has accused the current SAG leadership, a Hollywood-based group known as Membership First, of mishandling talks and straining relations with SAG's sister union, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA).

This current challenge to SAG's ruling coalition means the standoff is likely to drag on for another two months.

Membership First, led by SAG President Alan Rosenberg, rose to power in 2005 after pledging to get tougher with producers and studios in contract negotiations.

Opponents said that Rosenberg's confrontational stance toward AFTRA and AMPTP has backfired.

Arkin said, "I'm concerned for future negotiations if we don't change the leadership that has brought us to this point."

SAG representatives have declined comment on his remarks.