Dissidents win SAG board seats (VAR, THR, DHD, REU)

By Nancy Tartaglione-Vialatte

The upstart Unite for Strength faction of SAG has won control of the guild�s board. The surprise election results gave six of the 11 Hollywood seats to the dissident group in a turn that could heighten the chances of ending the guild�s stalemate with the majors.

Amy Brenneman and Adam Arkin led the way as the top vote-getters on the Unite for Strength side while the more confrontational Membership First faction lost control for the first time in three years.

Unite for Strength now has a slim majority on the 71-member board since the coalition is expected to ally with reps in New York and the regional branches, notes Variety.

The majority of the board's influential Hollywood branch is still held by Membership First, but Unite for Strength members can now wield effective control over the national board by aligning with their like-minded counterparts from New York and other branches of the guild.

In the wake of the power shift, the wheels were already turning Thursday evening toward breaking the three-month logjam between SAG and the AMPTP. Hollywood heavyweights will begin reaching out immediately to the newly-elected reps.

Despite a much-ballyhooed poll in which 87% of respondents said they supported SAG�s stay-firm stance, the election amounted to a member referendum on how SAG has conducted the contract negotiations.

Unite for Strength's Ken Howard, Pamela Reed and Kate Walsh also won Hollywood seats along with incumbent Morgan Fairchild. Unite for Strength�s big-name backers included Tom Hanks, Marcia Cross, Sally Field, Felicity Huffman, William H. Macy, Mark Ruffalo and Gary Sinise.

Membership First candidates took five Hollywood seats, with incumbent JoBeth Williams scoring the third highest vote total among the 84 Hollywood candidates.

The Unite for Strength victory dramatically lessens the chances that SAG's leaders will be emboldened enough to ask members for a strike authorization. Still, the vote will not change the makeup of SAG's negotiating committee. However, the new Unite for Strength board members generally are more moderate than the incumbents, notes The Hollywood Reporter, and their election increases the likelihood that the stalemate will be broken.

Deadline Hollywood Daily opines that the election may not affect the current negotiations with one Membership First member saying "The election changes nothing. The employers are still going to deal with the same people across the table." However, notes DHD, during the campaign Unite for Strength candidates argued that they could influence the SAG National Board to change the makeup of the negotiating committee.

Reuters spoke with Jonathan Handel, an entertainment lawyer with ties to both Hollywood labor and management, who said SAG and the studios were unlikely to make much progress toward a settlement before early next year. He said the newly reconstituted board could take months to even decide whether to appoint new negotiators.

"No matter what happens, there won't be a new deal before January 1 at the earliest," Handel told Reuters.

After the results, SAG president Alan Rosenberg issued a call for unity.

"I congratulate those members newly elected to our board of directors and I look forward to working closely with each of them," he said. "Now it's time to work in tandem on behalf of SAG members throughout the country to get a fair contract we can all be proud of. A union divided benefits only the employers, and SAG members deserve nothing less than unified, focused leadership."

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