SAG and the studios

It came as no surprise that a federal mediator failed to end the stalemate between Hollywood studios and the industry’s largest actors union, the Screen Actors Guild. The predictability of the outcome, though, doesn’t make it less disappointing. The lingering discord, which has slowed or even sidelined some projects, is bad for everyone -- especially the workers and companies whose livelihoods depend on film and TV production but who don’t have a seat at the negotiating table. And the direction taken by SAG’s leadership points toward a place the union really doesn’t want to go.

The studios have been standing firm on the offer they made to the union on June 30, the day their contract expired. That offer is based on the deals previously cut with Hollywood writers, directors and a smaller actors union. SAG’s negotiating team, which argues that it should not be locked into terms negotiated by other workers with different needs, has focused lately on three issues: requiring studios to hire union actors for any programming created for the Internet; collecting residuals when videos made for the Internet are reused by other websites; and continuing to be paid during work stoppages caused by natural disasters or strikes by other unions.

In their defense, the studios have argued publicly that SAG actors don’t deserve better terms than the other talent unions. But that’s not persuasive; it’s doubtful that NBC Universal or 20th Century Fox would accept a set of terms it didn’t like just because its rivals did.

On the other hand, SAG’s negotiating team, which is controlled by the more aggressive wing of the membership, has backed itself into a corner. Unable to move the studios significantly, it has nevertheless clung to some show-stopping demands, such as an increase in DVD residuals. If it persuades the rank and file to strike over Internet-related issues, as the Writers Guild of America did, it risks the same result: a deal that gains less for actors than they lose in the work stoppage. And if the membership or the SAG board votes not to authorize a strike, the union’s negotiators would be hung out to dry, unable to exert any leverage on the studios. Either plot twist leads to an ugly ending, and that’s why the two sides’ negotiators should return to the bargaining table before the ballots get mailed.