Extras’ Leaders Avoid Stand on New Contract

In a somewhat surprising move, the executive board of the Screen Extras Guild decided Friday to submit its tentative new contract--which includes a two-tier wage system--to a membership vote without a recommendation.

“It would make the board look bad” if the new pact with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers were rejected by the membership after the board had recommended it, said Tom Willett, a spokesman for the extras. He noted that the guild’s negotiating team had recommended a concessionary contract last fall and then had to back off because of a membership rebellion.

Phil Prentice, secretary-treasurer of the guild, said a general membership meeting will be held March 1 so extras can voice their opinions on the one-year agreement before having to submit their mail ballots.

Staged First Strike

The extras went on strike last week, for the first time in their 41-year history, to protest wage reductions imposed by the producers. The union persuaded some of its members not to report to work but did not erect any picket lines at the affected studios.

The new pact, reached Wednesday, basically preserves the extras’ old pay scale but will save the producers considerable money because of other terms. It calls for “experienced professional extras” to receive $90 a day, plus health and pension benefits. That is $1 a day less than they got under the old contract, but they will net a gain of $3 because in the past $4 a day was taken out for a health and welfare contribution, and that no longer will be done, Willett said.

So-called “newly hired extras” will be paid $5 an hour, plus health benefits but no pension benefits, Willett said. They will be guaranteed at least a six-hour workday.

The contract defines “experienced professional extras” as individuals who are now registered with certain designated casting agencies. Almost all the 6,000 current members of the guild are registered. The “newly hired extras” are defined as persons not currently registered.

More Non-Union Extras

The contract also vastly expands the ability of companies covered by the contract to hire non-union extras. In the past, the first 125 extras hired by a film company had to be members of the Screen Extras Guild. Under the new agreement, only the first 40 extras hired must be in the union and only 24 of the 40 must be “experienced professional extras.”

In television productions in the past, the first 75 extras to be hired had to be in the guild. That has been reduced to the first 30, of whom only 18 would be in the higher-paid “experienced” category.

Overtime costs also will be reduced, Willett said.

The extras, perennially the weakest of the motion picture industry unions, affiliated with the 1.6-million-member Teamsters Union last month in an attempt to increase its bargaining power. Teamster officials played a key role in negotiations that led to the new contract.

Disney, Columbia, Paramount, 20th Century-Fox, Universal, Warner Bros. and Aaron Spelling Productions are covered by the new contract.