After the disruption of the 100-day writers strike, Hollywood is growing uneasy because of the actors’ pending contract negotiations.
The two actors’ unions - the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the Screen Actors Guild - parted ways Saturday after 27 years of negotiating TV and film contracts together.
AFTRA represents over 70,000 artists, while SAG boasts almost 120,000 members.
AFTRA made the move to end joint negotiations with SAG. AFTRA president Roberta Reardon explained the organization’s decision to separate from SAG in a letter to AFTRA members posted on their website on March 29.
The split was caused in part by one particular incident, involving the daytime soap opera The Bold and the Beautiful.
Reardon wrote that some of the leaders of SAG have encouraged cast members of The Bold and the Beautiful to decertify AFTRA as their union.
She says, “The people leading this drive apparently believe that decertifying AFTRA would further the goal of having one union for all actors. In fact, it would do the opposite … This situation is sadly not surprising given SAG Hollywood leadership’s ongoing campaign of misinformation to disparage AFTRA.”
Reardon adds, “How could we sit beside SAG at the bargaining table at the same time that its leaders in Hollywood are conspiring to undermine the gains we’ve achieved for all performers?”
Alan Rosenberg, the president of SAG, has called AFTRA’s decision “calculated, cynical, and may serve the interests of their institution, but not its members.”
The unions will negotiate separately with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers. Contracts for both expire on June 30.
Both unions are scrambling to be the first to negotiate with the AMPTP.
AFTRA has said it is ready to begin talks as soon as possible, on its own. Rosenburg told the New York Times, “We have to move much more quickly than we wanted to.”
Rosenberg told the Hollywood Reporter, “It’s only right that we’re the ones to go to the table first … They have no movies and three TV shows. It’s not right that they set the standard.”
The Hollywood Reporter also reports that Reardon spoke yesterday with AMPTP president Nick Counter, telling him “AFTRA is taking a sane approach to these negotiations…It’s not about hysteria and emotion, it’s about getting what’s right for the members.”
The unions haven’t separated entirely. CeCe Dubois, Frances Fisher, Maureen Donnelly, Sumi Haru and Suzanne Burkhead currently serve as directors for both AFTRA and SAG.
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