Wednesday, July 09, 2008

In The Proverbial Box

This should indicate that it's game, set and match for further labor action in Hollywood this year:

The smaller of Hollywood's two performers unions {AFTRA} ratified a new prime-time TV contract on Tuesday ...

And SAG now has nowhere much to go. They'll end up with the deal every other union and guild has gotten from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers this year.

Good or bad, that's the way it goes down, because SAG has minimal leverage at this point. (As always, I'm not saying it's fair, or just or American Apple Pie. Merely that it is what it is.

It's a shame that SAG didn't merge with AFTRA when it had the chance(s). Too often people don't sit down and think things out long term. Ah well...

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good times. Now everyone get back to work.

Jeff Massie said...

No big surprise here. And not surprisingly, SAG's prez tried to put his spin on it in Nikki F.'s column:

"Clearly many Screen Actors Guild members responded to our education and outreach campaign and voted against the inadequate AFTRA agreement."

And from Rosenberg's militant POV, the fact that a contract that was unanimously recommended by AFTRA's negotiating committee was approved by only 62.4% of their members might seem like a vindication of his anti-ratification campaign amongst the dual-card holders. Had the approval percentage been higher, it would have been a stronger indication of the SAG's membership's unwillingness to vote for a strike.

As another labor rep put it to me recently: "It just remains to be seen how insanely militant the SAG leadership will turn out to be."

Anonymous said...

I support SAG's right to hold out for their best interest. I don't want to them to cede to the studios.
...but right now thats the way the cookie crumbles. they're going to have to take less during these negotiations and hold out for more in the future. they can't strike in an economy like this. bad luck for them.

Steve Hulett said...

You could argue they make at least some of their luck, for they would control much more of the playing field if they had MERGED with AFTRA when the opportunity was there.

But they didn't, and now they suffer the consequences of bad earlier judgment.

Anonymous said...

anyone surprised that their own egos did them in?

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