Union leaders OK Hollywood labor contract
LOS ANGELES (AP) - June 7, 2008 The board of the American Federation of Television and Radio
Artists approved the three-year deal late Friday, and it will go to
the union's 70,000 members for ratification this month, the union
said Saturday. The existing contract was set to end June 30.
The agreement "makes sense for all performers," AFTRA National
President Roberta Reardon said in the statement. "AFTRA members
now have the opportunity to vote 'yes' for higher pay, improved
working conditions, and continued right of consent for use of
excerpts in New Media."
The deal covers only a handful of prime-time TV shows, including
HBO's "Curb Your Enthusiasm," the CBS drama "Rules of
Engagement" and ABC's "Cashmere Mafia."
The 120,000-member Screen Actors Guild, which is the larger and
more combative of Hollywood's two actor unions, continues to
negotiate with the studios. It still has the power to shut down
Hollywood film production.
The AFTRA agreement largely followed a script laid out in
contracts approved by directors in January and by writers after
their 100-day strike ended in February.
It established higher fees for downloaded content and residual
payments for ad-supported streams and clips.
It also sets a 90-day deadline after ratification for developing
a system for actors to consent to the online use of clips
containing their images or voices.
SAG had pushed for more concessions by the Alliance of Motion
Picture and Television Producers.
The two unions had agreed to the same starting proposals but
took different tacks with the studios - the first time they had
negotiated separately for the first time in 27 years. About 44,000
actors are members of both unions.
In March, AFTRA accused SAG of trying to entice actors in the
soap drama "The Bold and the Beautiful" to abandon the federation
and said it was "in the best interests of our members" to deal
with the studios on its own.
AFTRA began its own negotiations on May 7 after SAG temporarily
suspended its studio talks. AFTRA's board gave tentative approval
to the contract on May 28 - and hours later, SAG returned to the
bargaining table.
In its statement Saturday, AFTRA said its board rejected a SAG
request to delay ratification of the new contract until SAG
concluded its own negotiations. AFTRA's board also warned that it
might pursue "legal remedies" if SAG tried to "undermine or
interfere with our ratification process."
A call to a SAG spokeswoman seeking comment was not immediately
returned Saturday.
SAG president Alan Rosenberg has insisted that his union would
push for a better deal. In a message to members May 27, he said the
guild would still fight to increase payments for DVD appearances in
the form of pension and health care contributions.
Rosenberg said the guild would also push to give actors a say
regarding product endorsements in scripted scenes and argue for
jurisdiction to cover projects created for the Internet, even those
with low budgets.
Both AFTRA and SAG had said they wanted to avoid a repeat of the
110-day writers strike that ended in February. That walkout shut
down production on dozens of TV shows and cost the Los Angeles-area
economy an estimated $2.5 billion.
Pressure for a speedy resolution came from A-list actors such as
Tom Hanks, George Clooney, Meryl Streep and Robert De Niro, who
took out ads in trade publications in March calling for talks to
start months ahead of the June 30 contract expiration date.
The possibility of a strike sent some film producers rushing to
finish shooting or delaying projects for fear they would be shut
down before filming was complete.
SAG reached separate deals that cleared the way for more than
300 independent productions to raise financing and start work. The
agreements called for those companies to abide retroactively by the
long-term contract eventually reached with the major studios.
SAG represents actors in movies, TV and other media. The TV and
radio federation represents, among others, actors, singers,
announcers and journalists.
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AP Business Writer Ryan Nakashima contributed to this report.