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Hollywood has been torn up by the long, drawn-out contract battle between the Screen Actors Guild and the producers association, the AMPTP.
It's been nearly a year since SAG's contract expired, and now today is the deadline for Screen Actors Guild members to vote on a two-year contract with the movie studios. This deal, which SAG's board approved narrowly in April, would give actors a 3 percent wage increase and a half-percent increase in benefits, plus a 3.5 percent increase in the second year. The bad news for actors is that the increases are not retroactive. Actors are losing out on a year's worth of gains, which the studios estimate would be worth nearly $79 million.
SAG's big win in this contract is the fact that it'll be timed to expire around the time the other guilds' contracts expire, giving all the guilds more negotiating power. That said, SAG made a number of concessions; once its sister union, AFTRA, ratified a deal last July, SAG didn't have much negotiating power. And SAG's potential to threaten a strike lessened as the economy got worse. The final contract ended up being quite similar to the Writers and Directors Guild deals.
SAG is still bitterly divided: guild President Alan Rosenberg still opposes a deal and has called for a strike vote. But Rosenberg has been pushed aside, ad the guild's exectuive director Doug Allen was fired, replaced by a leadership eager to make a deal and get everyone back to work.
Hollywood is facing so many issues right now, most notably the declining DVD market in light of the end of the product cycle, the pullback in consumer spending and increased piracy. Studios are making fewer movies, watching their budgets, and looking to avoid risk in favor of sure bets. The actors know that they'd be wise to get back to work with a new, sweeter contract. I'd be very surprised if this contract weren't approved.
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