LOS ANGELES — Members of the Screen Actors Guild will now have their say on a proposed new contract with the major Hollywood studios, after a majority of the union’s national board voted on Sunday to accept a deal that is little changed from what the studios offered 10 months ago.þþIn that time, members of the union’s board have spent as much or more time fighting with one another for control of the negotiations process than in bargaining with the studios. þþThe proposed two-year contract is not retroactive to the expiration of the previous pact in June, so the actors have lost an estimated $65 million in compensation in the interim, according to the studios.þþThe proposed contract, which was approved by 53 percent of the national board, with 47 percent opposing, will offer actors a 3.5 percent annual increase in minimum payments for television and film work and, for the first time, includes a structure to pay actors for their work in projects made for the Internet. þþ“We’re eager to get our members back to work and to focus on the challenges ahead, particularly on initiating a comprehensive effort to thoughtfully plan for the future,” said David White, the interim national executive director for the union.þþSome people tracking the business of Hollywood were left unimpressed by the proposed deal.þþ“It’s going to be difficult for the union to put too positive a spin on this,” said David M. Smith, an associate professor of economics at Pepperdine University, who has followed the talks closely. “This is basically the same contract that they were offered months ago.” þþIf approved, the new contract will last through June 2011, putting the union in position to bargain over its next contract in combination with three other Hollywood unions — representing directors, writers and some television performers — whose contracts expire around the same time.þþRatification, which requires a majority of those voting among its 120,000 members, is not assured. A group that holds a majority of the positions on the union’s largest division, representing actors based in Los Angeles, has said they oppose the proposal and will work to defeat it.þþAmong those urging the rejection of the contract is Alan Rosenberg, the union’s president, who saw his influence undercut when the board voted earlier this year to fire its national executive director and chief negotiator, Doug Allen, who Mr. Rosenberg picked for the post in 2006.þþAccording to people close to the negotiations, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the confidential nature of the talks, the agreement with the national board came in meetings involving the union and some of the top executives at the major studios, including Robert A. Iger of the Walt Disney Company and Barry M. Meyer of Warner Brothers.þþThe new contract, if approved, will allow the major movie studios to begin work on films they hope to get into theaters next year. While the actors union had granted exemptions to many small productions that allowed them to start projects, the larger studios did not want to begin work on big films when it looked like the union was on the verge of a strike-authorization vote.þþTelevision production was less affected, but mainly because most new television projects, which are now shooting pilot episodes and being evaluated by the broadcast networks for addition to next season’s schedules, signed contracts with a rival union, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. þþThat, combined with the slowdown in film production and the national recession, has squeezed the actors union’s finances. An analysis of the union’s financial statements published last week by the SAGwatch blog reported that the union’s expense had jumped 26 percent over the last three years while membership rolls had grown by only 3 percent and income from dues and agency fees rose just 5 percent.þþThe Hollywood unions achieved some victories in the later rounds of negotiations at a time when organized labor remains on the defensive in many sectors of the economy, said Stephen F. Diamond, an associate professor of law at Santa Clara University. þþIn addition to negotiating wage increases of 10 percent over three years, the unions added new jurisdiction over an emerging area of content — namely, works created for and transmitted over the Internet. “They ought to be proud of what they did,” Mr. Diamond said. þþ
Source: NY Times
