An overwhelming majority (62%) of the 70,000 members of the American Federation of Television & Radio Artists (AFTRA) have ratified that union’s contract deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers (AMPTP) knocking back the larger actor’s union, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), on its heels.
AFTRA had signaled early on in their negotiations with the producers that they were open to ensuring a contract would be possible between the two parties. SAG representatives have fought against the ratification almost from the beginning. AFTRA members cited the fact that the current economy isn’t conducive for a strike by its members and feel that for its actors to walk-out at this time would be too devastating, not only for them, but to the entertainment industry overall. The terms in this new AFTRA deal practically mirror those in the contracts signed by the Writers Guild of America (WGA) and the Directors Guild of America (DGA). This now puts real pressure on SAG to sit down and negotiate and consider the majors’ final offer to SAG given them last week.
Ballots went out to all 70,000 AFTRA members, including 44,000 SAG members who belong to both unions. Alec Baldwin, Sally Field, Tom Hanks and Susan Sarandon backed the AFTRA deal while Viggo Mortensen, Jack Nicholson, Nick Nolte and Martin Sheen endorsed SAG’s anti-AFTRA stance, according to Variety.
With this new development the negotiators for the AMPTP said that it has a new meeting with SAG leadership set and stated, “The Producers remain hopeful that SAG will accept our final offer.”
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