Members of Actors Unions May Be Asked to Authorize Strike

After rejecting a final offer from producers on a new contract covering most major movie and prime-time television productions, negotiators for two actors unions said Thursday they will seek permission for a strike authorization vote next week.

Although discussions between representatives of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and negotiators for the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) were suspended late Wednesday, the unions are asking their 90,000 members to keep working while the strike authorization vote is considered.

The contract that expired this week covers performers in prime-time television and movies but does not affect daytime soap operas, news, commercials or radio shows.

Issues dividing the two sides include pay rates for actors and payments for movies shown on videocassettes and pay TV.

“We hope there will not be a strike,” said Carol Akiyama, a senior vice president of the producers organization. “We’ll wait and see.”

AFTRA spokeswoman Pamm Fair said officials of both actors unions will meet in Los Angeles and New York next week to decide whether members should be polled by mail on a possible strike vote. The ballots could go out as early as next Friday, she said.

“A strike authorization vote merely gives our board of directors the ability to call a strike if and when it becomes absolutely necessary,” Fair said. She said that speculating on whether there will be a work stoppage is premature.

SAG spokesman Mark Locher said the results of the balloting should be known by July 23.

If a strike is called, production of programs for television’s fall season could be disrupted for the second time in six years. In 1980, actors walked off the job for 10 weeks, delaying the start of the new TV season. That strike cost an estimated $40 million a week in lost wages and production expenses.