Finally: SAG, Producers Reach Tentative Agreement
Thursday, Jan 7, 2010 | Updated 2:54 PM PST
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Screen Actors Guild members and supporters hold a solidarity rally regarding contract negotiations outside the Screen Actors Guild National Headquarters June 9, 2008.
After months of protests, divisive rhetoric among actors and threats of a possible strike, the Screen Actors Guild and Hollywood producers announced Friday they had reached a tentative labor contract agreement.
SAG and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers -- which represents the major Hollywood studios -- did not provide specifics of the tentative deal, which would still need to be approved by the SAG national board of directors and the union's membership.
"Details of the agreement covering television programs and motion pictures will not be disclosed prior to review by the SAG national board of directors this Sunday, April 19, at a previously scheduled board meeting via videoconference in Los Angeles and New York," according to a joint SAG-AMPTP statement.
"Screen Actors Guild will present the tentative agreement to the Screen Actors Guild board of directors for approval and referral to the membership for ratification."
The SAG contract covering motion picture and television production expired June 30. Negotiations deadlocked when SAG demanded better terms than other entertainment industry unions received -- including the Writers Guild of
America, Directors Guild of America and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.
The main sticking points were the amount of pay for programming shown over the Internet and DVD sales. Production has continued under the terms of the previous agreement.
Last year, SAG announced it was going to hold a strike authorization vote, which would have given union leaders the power to call a strike, but because of the sour economy and resistance from some members, the vote was never held. The union then ousted its negotiating team, and talks with the AMPTP resumed.
