LOS ANGELES — Danny DeVito and Rhea Perlman have beseeched their fellow actors to defeat a strike authorization vote that the Screen Actors Guild is putting forward. So has Richard Masur, a former national president of the union, who most recently appeared on “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.”þþMike Farrell, best known as B. J. Hunnicutt on “M*A*S*H,” sent an e-mail message to guild members saying: “I’m not anti-SAG. But I am anti-idiocy. I’m voting ‘no.’ ”þþWhen union leaders ask for the authority to call a strike, members almost always give it to them. Authorizations are usually so inevitable that guild leaders do not spend much time campaigning for them and they generate little media attention.þþNot this time. SAG leaders find themselves in a heated campaign to convince a wary membership that they need to strike — with the nation entangled in its worst economic crisis since the Depression — if movie and television studios do not soon capitulate to contract demands that have stalled negotiations since June. þþLeaders need 75 percent of voting members to approve the authorization, and would prefer an even wider percentage to strengthen their negotiating position with studios. The union said Wednesday that ballots would be mailed on Jan. 2 and be tabulated by Jan. 23.þþHundreds of actors are already on board, including names like Ed Asner, Justine Bateman and Viggo Mortensen, judging from their public comments. But other working actors appear to be balancing the fight for a better contract against their desire to walk picket lines during a recession.þþ“Getting the strike authorization will be a tall order given the economic crisis,” said David M. Smith, a labor economist at Pepperdine University. “I expect leaders wouldn’t be pushing for this vote if they didn’t think they could win, but I think it will be very close.”þþSo SAG leaders are digging in for battle with their own members, using a multifaceted sales strategy. Their campaign includes e-mail messages to members, strongly worded fact sheets and imploring video messages. In the latest video, posted on the SAG Web site on Tuesday, Alan Rosenberg, the guild president, looked calmly into the camera and tried to address fears about striking at such an awkward time.þþThe studios, Mr. Rosenberg said, “hope to use the economic uncertainty of 2008 to scare you into making a deal you will regret in 2010 and beyond.”þþThe centerpiece of the campaign is a series of meetings — some with members, some with publicists and managers — to press the case for a strike authorization and to generate media attention. On Monday, SAG held a three-hour informational meeting in Los Angeles that was attended by an estimated 500 members. þþ“The meeting confirmed that there is a great deal of support for a strike authorization,” said Doug Allen, the guild’s executive director. “I’m feeling positive.” A similar event is planned for New York next Monday, with a much larger Hollywood event planned for the middle of next week.þþOn Wednesday, SAG summoned publicists and managers who represent prominent actors to meetings in Los Angeles and New York. þþSAG leaders say the contract offer from producers is not adequate when it comes to the streaming of professionally produced video on the Internet. They also say actors should receive more money from the sale of DVDs, and compensation and control over the integration of products into television programs and movies.þþThe guild plans print ads and more videos over the next two weeks. A guild spokeswoman described the financial drain of the campaign as significant; insiders estimate the price tag at several hundred thousand dollars.þþSAG is battling the deep-pocketed Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the organization that negotiates labor contracts on behalf of the major studios. The group has introduced its own aggressive public relations effort against the strike authorization, orchestrated by a cadre of studio communications experts.þþMost visibly, the group took out a full-page ad in The Los Angeles Times on Dec. 1. Signed by the chief executives of the industry’s eight largest filmed entertainment companies, the strongly worded “open letter to the entertainment industry” inferred that SAG was lucky producers have not revised their offer downward as the economy has slumped. þþStudios have also taken the unusual step of posting their entire contract offer on the Internet for actors to scrutinize for themselves, and have been encouraging actors to reject SAG’s stance in ads in industry trade newspapers and via fliers distributed at casting agencies. An animated graphic on the organization’s Web site estimates that a strike will cost actors $2.5 million a day.þþMany other factions are lining up against a strike, too. Many agents, still suffering the aftermath of the 100-day writers’ strike of a year ago, are waging a private campaign against any work stoppage. þþThe American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the unions representing directors and writers have already settled, adding to the pressure on SAG members. And a wide variety of businesses that serve the entertainment industry — dry cleaners, lumberyards, florists, restaurants — have been warning actors about the pain a strike would inflict on them.þþIn his most recent video, Mr. Rosenberg addressed these people. “We are sensitive to the needs and concerns of everybody who works in this industry,” he said, adding that a strike authorization vote “is a last-resort option but one that is critical.”þþ
Source: NY Times
