NETWORKS, AFTRA WILL RESUME CONTRACT TALKS

Contract talks between the broadcast networks and the American Federation of Television and Radio Television Artists are to resume this week, and when they do, the union’s team will include the new executive secretary of AFTRA’s Los Angeles local.

He is Mark Alan Farber, named by the local board to succeed H. Wayne Oliver, the local’s chief executive since 1982. Oliver resigned on Dec. 31, citing “health and family considerations” and a need “to peek over a few horizons.”

Farber, an attorney and former performer and producer, has been assistant executive secretary of the Los Angeles branch since 1978.

The local, which says it has 26,000 members, is the largest in the 65,000-member union. AFTRA represents broadcast reporters and anchors as well as entertainers who appear in live and taped programs.

It has been negotiating for a new contract with CBS, ABC and NBC since its three-year agreement with the networks expired Nov. 15. The contract has been extended during the negotiations, which were recessed over the holidays.

The talks were to resume today. But an AFTRA spokesman in New York, who announced Farber’s appointment on Friday, said the meetings have been postponed until later this week because some of the negotiators have the flu.

Union and network officials have agreed not to publicly discuss the status of the talks while they are in progress. AFTRA last struck the networks in 1967 for 13 days.