Actors OK Authority for Strike

By an overwhelming majority, members of two major actors unions have authorized their negotiators to call a strike against movie and prime-time television producers if they remain unsatisfied with proposals made by the producers, the unions disclosed Sunday.

Nearly 87% of the members of the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Radio and Television Artists voted approval of a strike if necessary, according to Mark Locher, public relations director of SAG, and Pam Fair, spokeswoman for AFTRA in Los Angeles. More than 30,000 ballots were cast, from about one-third of the membership of the two unions, which are negotiating jointly with the producers.

“It’s a very solid vote,” Locher said, “but we’re still hoping to work out a peaceful settlement.”

Talks Scheduled

Indeed, negotiations toward a new three-year contract covering most major movie and prime-time television productions were scheduled to resume this afternoon at the offices of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers in Sherman Oaks.

Bargaining broke off on July 2 when negotiators for the actors said the producers’ “final offer” was unacceptable. Mail balloting on a strike authorization began shortly thereafter and all ballots had to be submitted by Friday.

The vote was 26,479 in favor of authorizing the strike and 4,014 against.

No negotiations have been held in the last three weeks, but representatives of the two sides have had informal discussions, sources said. A strike could be called at any time, though both sides have said they do not want a walkout. Filming already has begun for fall TV shows.

The three-year contract for the two unions, which does not affect daytime soap operas, news, commercials or radio shows, expired June 30.

1980 Strike

The actors last walked off the job in 1980 when they struck for 10 weeks, delaying the start of the fall television season. They eventually won a 4.5% share of the revenues of programs made for pay TV and home video.

Sources for the two sides have said that the key issues dividing them are pay rates for actors and payments for movies shown on videocassettes and pay TV.

The cassette issue is critical, Locher said. The producers, he said, are demanding an “unacceptable rollback” in the residual payment formula that determines how much actors get paid for movies shown on videocassettes and pay TV.

Movie producers have been contending that the new video technologies no longer are sources of supplemental, or “residual,” income and instead should be covered by wages paid to the performer for the original production. Sources in the industry said producers are concerned about cutting their costs as much as possible.

Carol Akiyama, a senior vice president for the producers alliance, declined to comment in detail on the strike vote. “Since the parties are resuming negotiations Monday,” she said, “it is premature to assess the situation.”