Thursday, October 23, 2008

The SAG-AMPTP Imbroglio, Part Ten

Back momentarily to labor stuff.

SAG and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers have agreed to sit down again after a three-month recess:

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers is expected to confirm as early as today that it has agreed to resume contract talks with the Screen Actors Guild with the help of a federal mediator. SAG’s national board issued the request for a mediator to step in following the guild’s board meeting last weekend.

What everybody assumes (probably correctly) is that neither side is going to budge very much, if at all. As a studio veep told me a few days back:

"SAG's leadership has painted itself into a corner. They're taking a stand on issues the AMPTP will probably never give them, and what are they going to do? Get the membership to vote to walk out? If they can't get 75% to vote for a strike, they're f*cked."

Yeah, I'd say.

I don't know enough about SAG's internal politics to know how this three-month fustercluck will shake out. 'Twere me in the SAG driver's seat, I would negotiate some fig leaf changes, proclaim victory, and go get a ratification vote.

Because the alternative is like, shutting the business down. Yikes.

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