Hollywood Strike

David White heralded the proposed agreement between SAG and the studios as "a good deal with solid gains," and added that "Within the context of negotiations [lasting] over a year and an economy changed radically since 2008, it's a fantastic deal."

Where did the Screen Actors Guild go? After months of news, the guild fell off the radar screen. The quiet was deceptive however.

SAG President Alan Rosenberg, who spoke at the picnic cum rally, predicted "a good chance" of defeat for the pending TV/theatrical deal, but that seems unlikely if MF can only attract a handful of members to an event in LA.

SAG's Hollywood branch, dominated by the hardline Membership First faction, has passed a motion forming a task force to explore "acquisition of actors...

The Screen Actors Guild National Board of Directors today voted to approve and recommend to members, new, two-year successor agreements to the 2005 Producer-Screen Actors Guild Codified Basic Agreement.

Hanging over all of this are the twin factors of the economy and new media. The troubled economy will continue to harm the entertainment industry for some time to come.

Last year proved that time is not on SAG's side. Recall that the union's then-leadership wanted better terms in new media than the other Hollywood uni...

SAG and AFTRA reached a deal with the advertising industry, retaining the compensation structure for broadcast network commercials, and resisting the industry's attempt to reduce pension and health contributions.

Though it gets less play than the stalled SAG TV/theatrical talks, SAG and AFTRA have been jointly negotiating for several weeks with the advertising industry over the commercials contract.

Leno's case is a political hot potato, because it pits the power of a Hollywood guild against the even greater power of one of its prominent members.

The Screen Actors Guild is besieged by bad news, and thanks to the misguided strategies of the previously-dominant hard-line faction, the union may be slipping towards irrelevance.

Friday the 13th proved unlucky for SAG president Alan Rosenberg and his co-plaintiffs in their lawsuit against their own union.

The SAG Board met yesterday and re-affirmed actions already taken in writing two weeks earlier: the ouster of former National Executive Director Doug Allen and the replacement of the negotiating team.

The chance of a strike is close to zero.

As I left the site of the meeting at SAG's LA headquarters at about 2:00 a.m., food arrived, suggesting more long hours for the sleep-deprived board.

The SAG National Board meeting began this morning at 9:00 a.m. accompanied by light informational leafleting from pro and con sources. The meeting is expected to be contentious.

For someone (anonymous, no less) to urge a blacklist of fellow actors for taking a legitimate position on a union issue seems inimical to the spirit of the SAG Awards.

Where do SAG contracts go when they expire? Who knows, but wherever it is, it's getting more crowded by the day. The Guild's got a lot of unfinishe...

Support for the strike authorization vote is eroding. Rather than risk defeat, the hardliners who control the Guild may instead push for the deal to be sent out to the members for ratification.

The strike authorization vote may get canceled altogether--or it might not. In light of this uncertainty, it's still critical to ask whether a strike authorization and possible strike make sense.

The Screen Actors Guild has delayed sending out the strike authorization ballots until January 14 at the earliest, representing an approximately two-week delay from the originally scheduled mailing date of January 2.

If there's a strike, we may be looking at next fall before there's a deal. In a nightmare scenario, all bets are off.

The reception in New York couldn't have been more different than in Los Angeles last week -- it's clear that this is now a union in open civil war.

Citing the economy, over 130 A-listers "strongly" urged SAG members not to authorize a strike, and instead "take the high road ... three years down the line ... make a great deal."

Members of the NY SAG Board have begun what Back Stage's blog describes as a "regional uprising," releasing a letter opposing a strike authorization.