Actors Bait Moguls, Each Other

If you don't like what you're hearing about the negotiations SAG's been holding with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers--say you're a hardworking grip who already lost plenty of income to the writers strike--just hold for a few hours and you'll like the next news cycle even less.

Monday's exchange of letters between Screen Actors Guild President Alan Rosenberg and Roberta Reardon, president of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, was a case in point. Having staged a rally last week whose main purpose was to condemn--and if he but could--undo--the recent agreement between AFTRA and the AMPTP, Rosenberg suggested a debate before the combined memberships, "In light of the fact that SAG and AFTRA members are receiving conflicting information regarding the tentative AFTRA agreement and its impact on SAG's ongoing negotiations."

Reardon responded in the negative:

We feel your request is somewhat disingenuous, as a public debate would have no real practical purpose. All it would do is contribute to the destructive and divisive efforts of the last year instigated by the guild's Hollywood leadership.

Calling Rosenberg's campaign to undermine the agreement "distracting and confusing for our members", she added, "SAG's misguided rhetoric and theatrics - holding rallies, town hall meetings, and the distribution of misinformation about the AFTRA contract - are certainly not serving the best interests of performers."

The internecine rivalry between SAG and AFTRA leadership has almost put the ongoing, and apparently unproductive SAG-AMPTP negotiations in the shade.

And yet it's those negotiations that are of crucial moment to our grip friend, who's likely to be put out of work (per Variety's Tuesday update) by a potential SAG walkout. In fact, even an extension of talks--which is a prospect Rosenberg's colleague, SAG Executive director Doug Allen, raised to the  Associated Press this past Friday--would result in what the AMPTP and even neutral observers have described as a "de facto strike".

The management group lashed out last Thursday-before Allen's declaration but after Rosenberg had publicly stated his skepticism that an agreement could be reached by the June 30 deadline--with the plaint,

We are frustrated and discouraged that on June 12, with 18 days left in the month, SAG's Hollywood leadership is already saying that it's unlikely a deal will be made by June 30.

As Variety reported:

The latest contretemps will increase Hollywood's fear that SAG actors will strike...Rosenberg and SAG national exec director Doug Allen [who lead a union of 120,000] have blamed the lack of progress on rival thesp union AFTRA for having reached a separate primetime deal two weeks ago -- leading SAG leaders to attempt to persuade its 44,000 dual members to vote down the AFTRA deal.

Among SAG's complaints about the AFTRA deal are what they see as insufficiencies in terms of new media jurisdiction and residuals, product placement, force majeure (the unions were stung by what they've seen as a cold-blooded housecleaning staged by the major film and television studios during the writers strike), and DVD residuals.

SAG's inability to close this deal," said the AMPTP's statement, " has already put the industry into another de facto strike, limiting the greenlighting of features and disrupting pilot production."

Pundits now predict SAG leaders will take a cue from AFTRA's July 7 ratification vote--as the studios fret. At last week's rally in front of SAG headquarters, a crowd police generously estimated at 550, augmented by a healthy sampling of red-shirted writers, heard speeches from actor Keith Carradine and the SAG leadership. We caught up to Rosenberg there: "Our job has been made more difficult by their agreement. Our message here is to vote that deal down. Look, I'm an AFTRA member and most of my earnings last year were AFTRA, I did a talk show-but I wouldn't be voting on my [film] DVD residuals in that capacity, it's just not right."

Admitting he was bucking AFTRA voters' overwhelming approval of the deal, he added, "It's an uphill battle. So if we can't defeat the contract I hope we can at least put a big dent in the ratification vote. Because we need to continue to fight and get the best deal we can." 

Rosenberg is particularly aggrieved about the producers' wish to use video clips of actors with few guarantees in place regarding consent and compensation. He called a proffer of $25 for the first six months' usage of a snippet, "Clips for tips."

Attorney Jonathan Handel, former counsel to the WGA and a frequent commentator on the union struggles, said he saw some justice in both sides: "I agree with SAG they should be compensated [via any new agreement] so the actors aren't left at the mercy of market forces; but you can't make the consent process too onerous or else you won't have a business, and the only clips out there will be the clips posted illegally."

---