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Screen Actors Guild and Studios Engage in Negotiations Yet Again
20-Nov-2008
Written by: Sari N. Kent
The country’s largest actors’ union and a congregation of Hollywood studios got together to discuss yet another touchy contract.
On Thursday, for the first time in four months, the Screen Actors Guild sat down with a coalition of Hollywood studios to discuss the inking of a new three-year contract by a union of crew members and production employees with the studios.
According to a New York Times Web site article, “The union, the Screen Actors Guild, which represents 120,000 actors, returned to the bargaining table with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers with the assistance of a federal mediator. The two groups are at odds over new terms for a contract that would include payments for Internet videos and other new media. They last met on July 16, two weeks after the union’s contract expired.”
Yet, the mere inkling of another crippling Hollywood strike has cast a dark cloud over the proceedings. The New York Times Web site article then added, “The writers’ guild agreed to a new contract in February after a three-month strike that shut down most scripted television production and delayed a number of films.”
Prior to the meeting, the thoughts of industry insiders were far from optimistic. The assembly was conducted with the assistance of a federal mediator. Among those present at the gathering were the Screen Actors Guild chief negotiator, Doug Allen, and the lead bargainer for the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, J. Nicholas Counter III. Juan Carlos Gonzalez, the federal mediator, met with each side of the issue separately.
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