SAG, AFTRA Unveil Plan to Consolidate

Hollywood’s two major performers unions Thursday went public with their plan to join under an umbrella organization overseeing separate affiliates for actors, broadcasters and recording artists.

Directors of the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists are expected to endorse a broad set of goals leading to the formation of the three-pronged group during a conference call Saturday. The directors probably will map out specifics of the plan to join and pave the way toward drafting a new constitution.

Any plan would have to be submitted to members for a vote, with more than 60% approval needed.

The two groups would have 150,000 members combined.

Under the proposal, the actor, broadcaster and recording artist groups would be analogous to unions within a union. Each would have a president elected by members, although the head of the umbrella group would be selected by a convention of delegates.

Similar procedures are used to choose leaders of such umbrella labor groups as the AFL-CIO.

SAG and AFTRA first discussed combining in 1937.

A plan to merge was voted down by SAG members four years ago.