After many months of internal debate, members of the Screen Actors Guild said "yes" to a new contract with the big studios:

Members of the Screen Actors Guild have voted overwhelmingly to approve a new contract with the major Hollywood studios, ending a nearly year-long standoff.

The delay resulted in the union’s missing out on millions of dollars in potential pay increases and on contracts to represent actors on many of next fall’s new television series.The union announced Tuesday night that 78 percent of those who voted supported the contract. About 35 percent of the union’s 110,000 members returned ballots. The votes in favor of the contract exceeded 70 percent in all three of the union’s major divisions, including in Hollywood, where much of the most high-profile opposition was centered.

The new, two-year contract gives the union a 3 percent wage increase immediately and a 3.5 percent increase after one year. In addition, it provides a number of benefits for actors working on material created for digital distribution, including residual payments for ad-supported Internet streaming of feature films and television programs.

   As I see it, this was inevitable. More than a year ago, I thought that eventually SAG would have to make the same deal that the Writers Guild of America reached after its strike and the deal AFTRA reached after it threw SAG overboard and made its own peace with the employers.

   Until some measure of solidarity returns in that business, there is simply no way that one union, on its own, can get better terms. And if you think the strife at SAG has now ended, forget it–the national board elections are coming up in the Fall and the bitter fights between the two main factions at SAG will likely continue…unless someone with a big enough profile, or a foot in both camps, steps forward as a conciliator.