MUMBAI: In a clear move toward moderation, Screen Actors Guild members have overwhelming ratified a two-year feature-primetime contract with a 78% yes vote.
The vote brought down the curtain on a year-long drama that‘s left the guild mired in acrimony and the town dogged by uncertainty.
“This decisive vote gets our members back to work with immediate pay raises and puts SAG in a strong position for the future,” said David White, interim national exec director.
Turnout among the 110,000 eligible members was a higher-than-normal 35%. And the vote also represented a stinging rebuke to SAG president Alan Rosenberg and his allies who have insisted on holding out for a better deal – and going on strike if the congloms failed to comply.
“It may be due to fatigue, fear and the economy,” Rosenberg said. “This contract will have a devastating impact.”
Despite allowing the SAG master contract to expire a year ago, guild leaders wound up with essentially the same deal signed last year by the DGA, WGA and AFTRA. After the moderates fired Doug Allen for allegedly botching the negotiations, the only concession that White and chief negotiator John McGuire got from the congloms was a two-year term – placing SAG‘s June 30, 2011 termination in synch with the other unions.
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