Hollywood Strike

Although no one else has publicly raised this issue to my knowledge, buried in the SAG deal on the table are the seeds of a scathing fight for control of the future of new media.

The health of a society can be measured by the vitality of its middle class. This is true of Industry as well. Hollywood has pushed the middle class of artists to the bottom and now they are on the verge of extinction.

The Screen Actors Guild just announced that strike authorization ballots will be mailed Friday, January 2 and will be due back and tabulated three wee...

Doug Allen told me that increasing the DVD residual is a fifth priority, after the top three (new media jurisdiction, new media residuals, and force majeure) and product integration.

I think you'll find this useful if you want to understand the issues, rather than just listen to slogans and each side's self-interested positioning.

To my pleasant surprise, the AMPTP has now released an offer, along with a summary of key points. Here are some of the key points.

Is it really possible, in this economy, that SAG members will vote to authorize a strike? Yes.

SAG sent a long email to its members yesterday urging its members to vote yes on strike authorization ballots to be sent out in December.

Mediation between the studio alliance (the AMPTP) and the Screen Actors Guild failed late Friday night, and SAG announced plans to seek a strike authorization vote from its members.

SAG leaders met Friday with the federal mediator, and in a statement said that they discussed with him the union's request for mediation and "the possibilities regarding the resumption of negotiations."

The AMPTP has agreed to attend sessions conducted by a federal mediator, Juan Carlos Gonzalez, who unsuccessfully mediated the WGA negotiations just before the contract expired and the union decided to strike.

The SAG national board passed a resolution yesterday on what to do regarding contract negotiations with the studios. My take: Membership First outma...

Next news is likely to come next weekend (Oct. 18-19), when the SAG national board meets. Items on the agenda will include whether to send a strike authorization referendum to the members.

Aieee, it's alive! Remember Phase One? That's the 27 year old joint bargaining arrangement between SAG and AFTRA that collapsed this spring.

Fitch Ratings, a leading global rating agency that rates the credit of large businesses, municipal governments, and entire industry sectors (they must...

SAG's negotiating committee has the power to send a strike authorization referendum to the membership at large, but it instead punted to the national board.

SAG moved closer to a strike today, but not quite as far as some predicted. The guild's negotiating committee, which has the power to send a strike...

SAG's appears to be playing a dangerous game: Seek an authorization and fail to obtain it, and the guild's leverage collapses.

A key sentence warns "If your intransigence continues, however, our choices become harder and fewer." Whether SAG actually has any leverage to back up those words is unclear.

The SAG elections are over, and the Unite for Strength challenger slate now has a razor-thin majority on the national SAG Board. Indeed, one of MF's ...

Yesterday, I did live streaming video interviews with SAG candidates and board members from the incumbent, dominant faction, Membership First (represe...

Three years from now, when the SAG agreement and WGA agreement expire a month apart, the unions may decide to try once again to increase DVD residuals.

A slate called Unite for Strength has arisen to challenge the Membership First faction of the SAG Board. But the slate doesn't have any A-list stars on it, which reduces its chances of successfully wresting control of the Board.

No deal yet between SAG and the studios. This video commentary explores why.

Day by day, the Screen Actors Guild's Hollywood leadership stumbles deeper into a morass, dragging behind it a bewildered and divided membership.