Screen Actors Guild Members Approve Contract 78%-22%

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 10, 2009 - 9:10am.

Los Angeles - The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) membership has given 78% approval for a proposed new contract with the Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), ending a year-long stint where actors were working without a contract. The union said that an above-average 35% of its 110,000 members who received ballots voted on the proposed contract. "This decisive vote gets our members back to work with immediate pay raises and puts SAG in a strong position for the future," said SAG interim national executive director David White.

The deal -- which includes residual payments for work in new media -- provides actors with a 3% pay raise, and another 3.5% raise in a year's time.

Some of SAG's upper ranks, including president Alan Rosenberg, believe the deal leaves much to be desired, and had been encouraging members to consider a strike.

"The membership has spoken and has decided to work under the terms of this contract that many of us, who have been involved in these negotiations from the beginning, believe to be devastatingly unsatisfactory," said SAG president Alan Rosenberg.

The current deal expires in 2011, and both White and Rosenberg said that preparations for the next round of negotiations will begin now.

Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/jurp8 (SAG statement)

http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118004744.html