Amid Contentious Debate, SAG Votes for Moderation

According to Daily Variety, the ballots are in in the Screen Actors Guild contract dispute--and the margin's aren't good for the 'vote no' side, led by Martin Sheen and Screen Actors Guild president Alan Rosenberg.

In a preliminary tally, over 78 percent of voters approved the deal in a clear signal that union members want to turn a page from the drama and internal fighting of previous years.

The vote also brings to an end a six-month fight in Hollywood that pit A-listers against each other.

Turnout was higher than normal for the union--about 35 percent for all 110,000 actors it represents.

With the uncertainty over the fate of the contract gone, actors are free to return back to work, with the knowledge that their livelihoods will be less tumultuous--for now.

According to the terms of the contract, SAG expects to get an immediate 3 percent raise in salaries, on top of a 3 percent salary hike each additional year plus a 0.5 percent gain in pension and health contributions the first year. It's a proposal many struggling actors would jump for, and it is also word-for-word the same deal that was offered to SAG a year earlier by the heads of the major production studios. This time around though, SAG did not spurn the studio bosses advances--a dramatic shift from the hard-line position in has taken in previous years.

The new direction means that the union can begin mending some of the fractured relationships it has had with its sister unions, particularly the Directors Guild of America and the Writers Guild of America, to say nothing of the American Film, Television And Radio Association--AFTRA--which parted ways with SAG when it negotiated its own primetime deal for new TV pilots without it's sister union's permission.

The vote was not without the usual political chicanery. Thanks in part to the moderate's sweeping victories in the fall elections, they were able to broker a deal with studios early, submitting a proposal over Rosenberg's head April 19.

Rosenberg expressed shock at the success of the 'vote yes' crowd at the polls.

In a series of members-only town hall meetings and web videos, the "Yes For Our Future" campaign emphasized the positive aspects of the prospective contract with Hollywood studios, talking up the gains in minimums and new media jurisdiction and argued that the lack of a deal has deprived working actors of an estimated $85 million dollars in pay raises last year.

Among the celebrities who endorsed the deal: Tom Hanks, George Clooney, and former SAG president Melissa Gilbert, who has staked out a reputation in recent years as a moderate pragmatist.

The 'no' side was equally well-represented and savvy, taking their arguments to YouTube and via selective leaks to the press, making the case that the explosive growth in new media means they will have to take a tougher line with the studios to get every penny they could out of them. That faction was led by Martin Sheen, Ed Harris, Melissa Leo, Rosenberg, and former SAG president Ed Asner. It was Asner who famously referred to the SAG contract deal as being equivalent to the Holocaust in a meeting in March--a remark former president Gilbert took objection to.

As for Rosenberg, he's already planning his reelection campaign, lining up supporters for what will be the next big fight of his career, the fall elections.

Rosenberg first took office in 2005, defeating challenger Morgan Fairchild by a measly five percent. Since then, he has had a tenuous hold over the union, winning a second term by the barest of margins against SAG presidential candidate Seymour Cassel in 2007.