By Leslie Simmons
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - The bad blood between
Hollywood's leading actors unions is boiling.
As the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) enters its 25th day of
negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television
Producers (AMPTP), the union will hold a rally Monday morning
at its Los Angeles headquarters for members.
While SAG bills the event as a "solidarity" rally, some
members are expected to use the gathering to speak out against
the new primetime/TV contract that its sister union the
American Federation of Telvision and Radio Artists (AFTRA) will
be sending to members for ratification.
In the meantime, AFTRA president Roberta Reardon plans to
meet with AFL-CIO leader John Sweeney to discuss the clash
between the two actor unions, which intensified Friday when
SAG's national executive board voted 13-10 to spend $75,000 on
educating members about the AFTRA deal.
In an e-mail to members Sunday, SAG president Alan
Rosenberg outlined what he called contract gains that AFTRA did
not get, and said that he and the union's negotiators are
trying to win for SAG members. Among them were improvements in
money and schedule breaks and a significant increase in the
major role minimum; more background coverage and compensation;
guild coverage and residuals for all original new media; the
right to consent to product integration; improving DVD
residuals; and an increase in mileage compensation for the
first time in 30 years.
Rosenberg also told members that SAG believes the tentative
AFTRA deal and its ratification -- which is expected to be
voted on by July 7 -- is a distraction that the AMPTP is using
"to delay significant progress in our negotiations."
On Thursday, SAG sent AFTRA a letter asking that its
national board vote to delay a ratification vote on the
tentative contract.
"Delaying ratification of the AFTRA contract could benefit
all actors," Rosenberg wrote to members Sunday. "AFTRA members
too would benefit by increased leverage in our negotiations and
through any favored nation clauses SAG might be able to achieve
that would provide improvements in the AFTRA deal."
