SAG Rejects Latest Offer From Hollywood

LOS ANGELES — The Screen Actors Guild weighed bargaining strategies Friday after Hollywood producers warned a souring economy could cause them to reconsider their contract offer.

The guild's national negotiating committee met in a closed-door strategy session and remains "committed to continuing to bargain for a fair contract," SAG said in a statement Friday.

But producers didn't signal a willingness to revisit what they've called their final proposal _ unless, perhaps, to reduce it.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers on Friday released remarks made at a bargaining session Thursday by Carol Lombardini, the group's executive vice president for business and legal affairs.

"It is no secret that we are in a deteriorating economy," Lombardini said. "Our companies are not immune from the effects of this economic slowdown. It is very possible that, as a result of changing economic conditions, we will have to reevaluate the offer we have on the table."

She also reiterated the studios' intention to drop retroactive pay increases if the deal isn't ratified by Aug. 15. The previous contract expired June 30.

The guild said Friday it had no comment on Lombardini's remarks. A negotiations update would be provided Monday, SAG said.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday called resolution of the labor dispute critical.

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"The last thing that we want is another strike. And I think that our economy is very vulnerable right now. ... A strike like that would be devastating," he said in Los Angeles.

The AMPTP has said the deal it's offering would provide $250 million in additional compensation over three years.

Doug Allen, SAG national executive director, has called the estimate "highly inflated," claiming that proposed raises to actors' minimum wages would not benefit the higher-paid actors.

A counterproposal offered by the guild "significantly narrowed the gap" with producers while remaining true to the guild's bargaining priorities, Allen said in a statement Friday.

The largest and most powerful actors union, SAG represents 120,000 actors in movies, TV and other media.

It is seeking greater compensation for DVDs, something neither writers, directors nor a smaller actors union, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, could secure. SAG also wants more say for actors asked to endorse products in scripted shows.

SAG began formal talks with the producers' alliance April 15, but those talks were temporarily suspended May 6 without a deal. The producers then began bargaining with AFTRA. A deal was announced May 28 and approved by AFTRA members.

SAG and the studios have said they want to avoid a rerun of the 100-day strike by the Writers Guild of America that ended in February. That walkout halted production on dozens of TV shows and was estimated to have cost the Los Angeles area economy more than $2 billion.