Sag Leaders Tear Into Aftra

A "solidarity" rally staged by the Screen Actors Guild on Monday reportedly drew
a modest crowd of a few hundred, who heard speakers denounce the recent agreement
between the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and the American
Federation of Television and Radio Artists. "AFTRA has now abandoned us to make their
own deal to the potential detriment of actors," SAG President Alan Rosenberg told
the crowd. To some, Rosenberg's speech appeared to be contrived to blame AFTRA if
SAG negotiators are unable to secure an agreement that is substantially more favorable
to the union than the ones negotiated between the AMPTA and AFTRA, the Writers Guild
of America and the Directors Guild of America. Daily Variety quoted an AFTRA
spokeswoman as saying, "It is unfortunate that SAG's primary negotiating tactic seems
to be to vote down its sister union's contract on a prayer of achieving a better
deal with the AMPTP." Apparently noting that fewer than 500 persons attended the
SAG rally despite a membership total of more than 120,000, the AFTRA spokesperson said,
""Today's event only further demonstrates that they have little support for their
misguided strategy. SAG members should encourage guild leadership to spend more time
at the table and less time, effort and member resources undermining AFTRA." In an
interview with Variety New York SAG President Sam Freed called the rally "an
irresponsible embarrassment."

10/06/2008

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