LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - The Screen Actors Guild's bitter infighting claimed another victim as members of the national executive committee voted to reject the recently negotiated video game contract against the wishes of members and the negotiating committee.þþIt is believed to be the first time in the union's 72-year history that board members have used the routine approval process to overrule the unanimous recommendations of a negotiating committee.þþFurther chaos was created because smaller union AFTRA (the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists), which co-negotiated the deal, accepted the new 3-1/2-year contract last week; the old agreement expired May 13. Insiders say AFTRA will be able to grab full jurisdiction of this burgeoning field when its new contract goes into effect July 1.þþThe deal offered by leading gaming companies including Electronic Arts and Activision offered to boost wages for voice-over and other performers by 36%, beginning with an immediate 25% hike. The actors also got increases in benefits and greater work protection, though not the residuals that they had been demanding.þþ``The bargaining committee and staff of Screen Actors Guild worked extremely hard over the course of many months to negotiate fairer terms and conditions for the actors who do this work,'' SAG national executive director Greg Hessinger said. ``While the tentative agreement they reached included several key gains, the guild's national executive committee has made the final determination that this proposal was not enough. We will now explore our options.''þþTuesday's vote fell just short of the required 60% approval. Sources say the national executive committee, a subset of the full national board, divided along the traditional lines of SAG president Melissa Gilbert and her Restore Respect coalition and their rivals in the MembershipFirst camp.þþ``MembershipFirst effectively put SAG out of the interactive business completely,'' a SAG board member said. ``They have shown the industry that Screen Actors Guild does not negotiate in good faith. Why would anyone want to sit down with us now?''þþSAG's two political factions have clashed over nearly every major issue in the past several years, with MembershipFirst derailing such initiatives as a dues increase and a merger with AFTRA.þþThe opponents, who could gain control of the national board in the fall's election, appear to be motivated by the concerns of certain members of the video game negotiating committee.þþWhile the negotiators unanimously recommended that the contract be approved, they did so only reluctantly after failing to get member support for a strike.þþEven then, with almost no other option but to accept the gaming industry's final offer, some of the more militant negotiators still demanded that the contract be rejected, sparking one of the most embarrassing rebellions in recent memory.þþþþ
Source: NY Times
