SAG faction unveils candidates slate

updated 11:02 p.m. ET Aug. 5, 2008

LOS ANGELES - The group of Hollywood actors that controls the Screen Actors Guild unveiled a slate of 33 board candidates Tuesday, two weeks after an opposition group claimed union leaders caused the current stalemate in contract talks with the major studios.

Membership First is running a slate of incumbents that includes JoBeth Williams, Joe Bologna and Scott Wilson, and newcomers such as Keith Carradine and Joely Fisher.

About a third of the 71 members of SAG’s national board are up for re-election, including 11 seats allocated to Hollywood actors that are now controlled by Membership First. Five seats will come from the New York branch while seven come from around the country. Votes are due Sept. 18.

Alternate seats also are available.

The election is seen as a referendum on the current leadership’s handling of talks with the studios and could be used as leverage by either side depending on the outcome.

The Membership First group currently controls 39 of the 71 seats, said Anne-Marie Johnson, a spokeswoman for the group.

Membership First would need to lose four seats to the opposition before its control of the guild could be jeopardized, she said.

Johnson added, however, that the guild’s negotiating committee would not be changed until 2011 at the earliest.

“Regardless of the outcome of the election, the negotiating committee stays as is until 2011. So it really doesn’t matter what happens,” she said.

Voting positions for president, currently held by Alan Rosenberg, and secretary treasurer, held by Connie Stevens, are not up for grabs until 2009. Executive director Doug Allen, who is spearheading the negotiations, is in an appointed position.

Talks with the studios ended after the sides last met July 16. A key sticking point has been how to handle made-for-Internet productions.

Actors are working under a contract covering movies and prime-time TV shows that expired June 30. The producers have called on SAG to accept its final offer, which it said was worth $250 million in additional compensation over three years, a figure the guild disputes.

The opposition group, Unite For Strength, announced its 31-candidate slate two weeks ago, aiming to unify SAG and a smaller actors union, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.

Unite For Strength, led by actor Ned Vaughn, has accused Membership First of stoking a bitter feud with AFTRA that led the two sides to negotiate separately with the studios for the first time in nearly three decades.

Last month, AFTRA members ratified a new three-year deal with the producers, following the template set by directors and accepted by writers after their four-month strike that ended in February.

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