• Variety, Monday, April 20, 2009 9:31 AM

SAG and AFTRA's leaders unanimously endorsed a new three-year commercials pact. The move by the two actors unions over the weekend triggers a ratification vote among the 150,000 members.

The commercials deal marked a return to joint negotiations by SAG and AFTRA, which split angrily a year ago. The unions and the ad industry reached a tentative agreement on April 1. The tentative pact represented a $36 million pay hike over three years, including $21 million more in pension and health contributions.

Ballots will be mailed next week with a return date in mid-May. Little opposition has emerged to the ad deal, which has received backing from SAG president Alan Rosenberg. The proposed agreement, which covers nearly $1 billion in annual blurb work, will be retroactive to April 1 and run through March 31, 2012. SAG and AFTRA staged a bitter six-month strike against the ad industry in 2000, but the tough economic times plus a shift in SAG leadership provided strong indications that a strike wasn't in the offing this year.

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