The verbal battle between the actors and producers continued throughout the summer derailing a strike from the thespians, but their patience is growing very thin. With the latest rejection from the producers to return to the negotiating table given just last week, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) leadership is asking its members for a strike authorization vote.
Actors have continued working under the terms of their old expired contracts with the studio and network producers hoping to stave-off a strike but both sides have held firm to their respective demands causing a stalemate and talkless summer.
Now SAG’s contract negotiating committee wants the guild to take a strike authorization vote, but it wants national board of directors’ seal of approval on the dicey matter first, according to a report in Variety.
A meeting was held on Wednesday by SAG’s negotiating committee where it passed the resolution calling on its national board to vote on whether to seek a strike authorization from SAG members. While the committee assigned to negotiate for the actors already has the authority to initiate a membership vote without the national board’s approval, they believe getting that approval upfront will add more weight to the call, especially important since there is dissension in 120,000 member rank-in-file on whether or not a strike should be even considered. Some of the biggest names in showbusiness, such as Tom Hanks are against it while others like Jack Nicholson see a strike as the only way to get their demands met.
“A strike authorization vote of the membership is necessary to overcome the employers’ intransigence,” the resolution stated. However, “the strong and public support of the national board” is important as a “prerequisite for its success.”
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), the organization representing producing studio and network interests called the resolution for the authorization not to strike a reckless move and ill-timed during this period of national and world economic crisis.
The main concern over a strike isn’t so much the actors and studios loosing money during the downtime, but the overall effect on the economy as every company that offers ancillary support during filmmaking and television production will loose income forcing layoffs and even bankruptcy for some small businesses dependent on the entertainment idustry for its income and meeting payroll. In today’s economic climate that could spell even more disaster.
“Is this really the time for anyone associated with the entertainment business to be talking about going on strike? Not only is the business suffering from recent economic conditions, but if ever there was a time when Americans wanted the diversions of movies and television, it is now,” the AMPTP said in a statement. A spokesperson for the AMPTP was also stated that any strike by the guild would be useless as the producers have already made their final offer and have no intention of changing it.
SAG, on the other hand, still believes that their demands are reasonable and leave plenty of room left for negotiation if the producers would just rejoin them at the table.
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