SAG goes to war against AFTRA: Legal action threatened.

Full Article @ Variety

Well, it turns out things are heating up more than I predicted regarding SAG, AFTRA, and the AMPTP. TV Rev HQ was all a-buzz with the hope that there wouldn’t be another TV strike with AFTRA seeming to be getting on swimmingly with deal talks. Damn SAGgies! Things are getting a bit more complicated, and possibly litigious. The up side to all of this is there is no report of SAG getting ready to strike (a deal is in everybody’s interests). Film and Television production couldn’t handle another strike this year, or even for a while yet. For the first time people can actually feel sorry for TV networks taking massive hits to revenue and ratings, and the possibility of further problems could threaten the long term running of broadcasters as well as their employees. An actors strike would be the worst kind of action right now, there would be a total stop to production. It’s also difficult for actors to take on scab work under an assumed name. You would have to imagine that after the last strike a lot of actors would leave their unions and continue to work.

From Variety

SAG goes to war against AFTRA: Legal action threatened
By DAVE MCNARY

In a move that will unnerve Hollywood, the longtime feud between the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television & Radio Artists has gone nuclear.

SAG’s launched an extraordinary campaign to persuade its 44,000 members who also hold AFTRA cards to defeat ratification of AFTRA’s primetime deal. SAG’s stunning move, voted up Friday by its bitterly divided national exec committee on a 13-10 margin, prompted AFTRA to threaten to take SAG to court for interfering in its internal affairs.
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Still, SAG leaders haven’t taken the step of calling for a strike authorization, even though its contract expires in three weeks. Instead, SAG insists that it’s all about getting a better deal for actors and notes it’s still far apart from the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers.

SAG president Alan Rosenberg notified members Sunday that there remain half a dozen major gaps — including DVDs, product integration, mileage pay and new-media pay. [Emphasis added] “These are examples of priorities for actors that were not achieved in the AFTRA deal,” he added.
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SAG hasn’t responded to questions about an AFTRA lawsuit but its defense would likely center on claims of free speech.
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In addition to the “solidarity” rally today, SAG’s also scheduled a townhall meeting Wednesday at the Harmony Gold Theater. The Writers Guild of America, which received extensive support from SAG during its 100-day strike, issued a call to its members to attend the rally.
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