SAG employees considering strike
Wage increases being negotiated between guild, Teamsters
Jonathan Handel | The Hollywood Reporter
Aug 20, 2010
Labor unrest is hitting SAG close to home.
Negotiations between the actors guild and Teamsters Local 986, which represents more than 40 of SAGs Los Angeles-based business representatives, have gotten bumpy. The contract between the parties expired June 1, and one issue still to be resolved is what wage increases the new deal will grant.
Yes, even unions have unions. In this negotiation, SAG functions as management, not labor. The guilds business representatives handle claims and meet with actors on set.
After about a dozen meetings, the two sides are far apart.
The Teamsters have proposed 5%, 4% and 4% annual raises for the first, second and third years of the contract, respectively, whereas SAG is offering 2% annual bumps for each year of the three-year deal.
SAGs number is consistent with other recent Hollywood deals. In June, AFTRA accepted 2% for a one-year extension of its daytime agreement, and Teamsters Local 399, representing Hollywood drivers, agreed to the same figure last month after initially holding out for 3%. The American Federation of Musicians also accepted 2%, and numerous smaller negotiations ended up at this figure as well.
Of course, SAG is a far smaller organization than any of the major studios, and its a nonprofit to boot.
But SAG and AFTRA are expected to seek higher wage increases when joint negotiations on a new deal with the AMPTP begin Sept. 27. The fact that the guild is trying to hold the line at 2% with its own employees is ironic, but that is not expected to influence those talks because the economics of a nonprofit are much different from those of a media conglomerate.
Still, the difficult negotiation raises the possibility that disgruntled SAG employees might actually picket their own guilds talks with the AMPTP if no Local 986 deal has been reached by the time studio bargaining begins.
As one SAG business rep put it, “I will guarantee you this, if there is no contract by that time, we will bring the demonstration to the doorsteps of their negotiation.”
SAG and the AMPTP declined to comment on the matter.
Read more @ The Hollywood Reporter.
