I guess i’m partly interested in the on-going saga at the Screen Actors Guild because I consider it my industry. And, as important, what happens to the power of creators in the increasingly digital information world does mean something to organized labor. You may remember that there has been a lot of turmoil at SAG which I wrote about here and here and here. Actually, SAG has had internal battles for at least a decade and really a lot longer. This particular round has erupted, at least in terms of an issue, around the question of whether the membership should authorize a strike vote.
Yesterday, there was a marathon board meeting. It was contentious, to say the least:
Only a few weeks ago Hollywood’s biggest actors union appeared dangerously close to sliding into a strike that would shut down movie and TV production and further depress the region’s economy. But a boardroom drama this week has drastically dimmed that prospect.
On Tuesday, a majority of the board of the Screen Actors Guild failed in an attempt to oust the union’s hard-line chief negotiator, Doug Allen, as supporters closed ranks around him during a nearly 30-hour meeting that was supposed to decide his fate. On the face of it, that was a victory for Allen’s supporters.
But the self-described moderates on the board achieved a broader goal: to neutralize Allen and his principal supporter, SAG President Alan Rosenberg, and effectively undercut the pair’s authority over the 120,000-member union. The moderates’ resolve in the face of parliamentary maneuvering by SAG’s leaders, observers say, will embolden them to veto any strike that the leadership seeks.
And…
Moderates introduced a resolution calling for Allen to be fired and the negotiating committee to be disbanded. But that failed after Allen’s supporters filibustered the vote. The negotiating committee is dominated by a faction that has resolutely backed SAG’s leadership.
Moderates later accused Allen and his supporters of trying to thwart the majority of the board.
"It’s important that members know there is great concern among the majority of the SAG board about the way things have been run and the proposed strike authorization," said Morgan Fairchild, the former star of "Falcon Crest" who is now a SAG board member.
Allen was unavailable for comment. Rosenberg, who led the meeting, said the motion to fire Allen was ill-conceived and accused his critics of attempting to sabotage the union’s negotiations.
"For them to blame Doug Allen is beyond my comprehension," Rosenberg said. "He’s done a phenomenal job."
We haven’t heard the last of this, I’d venture to guess.
