The Screen Actors Guild has postponed the strike authorized by the guilds board of directors last month. The mailing of ballots to the members was about to be sent January 2, 2009.
Securing such a vote in the current climate could be difficult for SAG. The referendum would require 75% approval from members who vote in order to pass. Although union members typically grant strike authorizations to leaders in negotiations, that could be a difficult threshold to meet given the deteriorating economy and strike fatigue after a 100- day walkout earlier this year by the Writers Guild of America.
The campaign to oppose a strike authorization by members of the Screen Actors Guild got a boost when members of the the New York Division Board of Directors issued a statement calling for their union to halt the upcoming referendum.
The New York board, which has 14 representatives on SAG's 71-member national board who have often clashed with the guild's leadership, demanded that the national board hold an emergency meeting to appoint a new negotiating task force to replace the current negotiating committee in order to jump- start contract talks with the studios that have stalled for months.
The opposition underscores how deeply divided SAG is, making it tougher for union leaders to present a united front as they wage an “education campaign" to muster support for the strike authorization. Ballots will be sent out Jan. 2 and tabulated on Jan. 23, the day before the national board is scheduled to meet. A strike authorization requires 75% approval from voting members, with the board having ultimate say over whether a walkout would occur.
SAG President Alan Rosenberg said in a statement he was “shocked and troubled" by the New York Board's demand to cancel the strike authorization vote, noting the New York board previously supported the idea in October. But he agreed to their demand to schedule an emegency national board meeting, the purpose of which would be to discuss “the ramifications of this extraordinarily destructive and subversive action."
