SAG stays mum as talks resume, but how much wiggle room is left? (VAR, THR)

By Nancy Tartaglione-Vialatte

The Screen Actors Guild's keeping a low profile as it returns to the negotiating table with no comment Thursday as execs met with the majors and with AFTRA reps, says Variety. The Hollywood Reporter notes also that following AFTRA's tentative agreement with the studios - similar on key issues to the WGA and DGA pacts - it remains unclear how SAG might mark any further gains in those same areas.

"I don't think (SAG is) going to be getting a better deal," entertainment labor attorney Alan Brunswick told THR. "I'd like to think they're realistic enough to know it doesn't make sense for them to strike by trying to better a deal three other unions have agreed to."

With the June 30 contract expiration looming, guild leaders are faced with a fast-approaching deadline if they want to seek a strike authorization.

Seeking the authorization would require several weeks and the approval of either SAG's national board or its national executive committee. When the WGA announced it had scheduled a strike authorization vote, it needed an additional 18 days to complete the process, notes Variety.

As of late Thursday, SAG's leaders had not yet weighed in with an evaluation of the AFTRA primetime deal.

One of the stickiest issues that AFTRA faced involved an AMPTP proposal to create a clip library and remove the right of consent for the non-promotional use of clips. But that was tabled in the tentative AFTRA agreement, to be revisited within three months of the pact's ratification.

Also, AFTRA and management agreed that actors joining new programs after July 1 can bargain the consent issue at the time of hire, notes THR. That solution was first proposed by SAGs negotiators - and rejected by the AMPTP - when they were talking in April.

As the only industry guild without a deal, SAG's hopes for making breakthrough gains on major issues appear to have faded. The guild's leadership might now be forced to focus on finding some areas in which progress can be made, given the current labor landscape, that it can sell to its membership. (THR)