SAG Urges Members To Strike

December 9, 2008

Strike talk is ratcheting up in Hollywood. SAG, the actors union, is urging members to strike--hoping the threat will pressure the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents film and TV studios, to restart contract negotiations, reports Bloomberg News. Strike authorization requires 75% approval by members. Economists say a strike by the 120,000 SAG members would cost more than the writers' strike and cripple the industry. The WGA strike cost the Los Angeles area $2 billion. SAG bargaining stalled in June; parties could not agree on union control of Internet programs.

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2 comments about "SAG Urges Members To Strike".

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S.e. Olson from Why We Watch, December 10, 2008 at 9:29 a.m.
This is the most irresponsible piece of reporting I have seen here at MediaPost (and normally this is a pretty informative & accurate site). If you would actually spend some time energy and money talking to someone at SAG you would know that on the evening of Monday December 8th at the Harmony Gold theater in Los Angeles ~450 paid up SAG members showed up to an informational meeting put on by SAG to discuss the upcoming vote on a strike *AUTHORIZATION* ballot which in order to *AUTHORIZE* the SAG national board to vote on whether to strike, 75% or more of the ballots returned have to have voted in favor of *AUTHORIZATION*. Voting is not the same thing as striking.
Whoever got paid to write this needs to be fired.
Reply

Stewart Sloke from World Wide Wadio, December 10, 2008 at 11:21 a.m.

None of the SAG members I know want a strike. These people are the folks that actually make a living from their SAG employment. The problem is that 90+% of the membership does not make a living wage from their SAG employment. Those are the people that have little or nothing to lose from a strike. Look for a strike to benefit members of AFTRA and do little or nothing but drag SAG members through the mud.