SAG Board Reaches "Tentative" Labor Deal; Actors to Vote

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 20, 2009 - 8:16am.

Los Angeles - Hollywood film and television actors will soon be voting on a new contract following ten months working without one, after the board of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) narrowly approved a deal put forth by the studios and networks on Sunday, Variety reported. The SAG board voted 53.4% to 46.6% to approve the deal, which includes a 3.5% pay increase, and similar terms for payments on new media jobs as were accepted in the deals the studios struck with the Writers Guild of America (WGA), Directors Guild of America (DGA), and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA).

Importantly for SAG, the contract will last two years instead of three, as the Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) had been pushing for -- aligning SAG's next round of contract talks with the other major guilds.

"This deal will put SAG in position to bargain for better new-media terms in the 2011 round of negotiations, since we'll be in synch with the other unions," Ned Vaughn, part of a SAG faction that pushed for the deal, told Variety.

Ballot are expected to go out early next month to SAG's 120,000 members, whose votes will ultimately determine whether the union will accept the terms of the deal.

http://snipurl.com/gaqvx (Deadline Hollywood Daily)

http://www.sag.org