LOCAL : 2 Actors’ Unions Reach Accord With Producers for TV and Film

The two largest actors’ unions have reached a tentative contract settlement with television and film producers, officials said today.

Mark Locher, a spokesman for the 70,000-member Screen Actors Guild, said that negotiators for SAG and the 68,000-member American Federation of Television and Radio Artists “were polishing the final contract language” this morning.

A spokesman for the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, Herb Steinberg, confirmed that a deal had been reached late Thursday afternoon.

Official contract talks were not scheduled to open for two more months. The current SAG-AFTRA pact with the producers’ group does not expire until the end of June. The unions reportedly have agreed to accept new rules governing overtime work and reruns for one-hour television shows in exchange for increased salaries and health and pension benefits.