Summary Box: Hollywood union drama set for anticlimactic denouement
By APMonday, June 8, 2009
Summary Box: Hollywood labor drama ends Tuesday
LONG-RUNNING DRAMA: A year after its last contract expired, the Screen Actors Guild is set to count the votes on a new deal with Hollywood TV and movie producers. The negotiations led to infighting in the union and the ouster of its leadership.
THE DEAL: About 120,000 SAG members got ballots for the new contract. The deal would raise the minimum pay for union members but would not improve compensation for movies and TV shows that run on the Internet.
AT STAKE: There would be few short-term effects from approval or rejection of the deal. Actors have been working under the terms of their old contract. But a rejection of the contract risks driving SAG into irrelevance and raising the profile of a smaller actors union, AFTRA.
