Another SAG Update

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Hollywood actors union ousts chief negotiator

By Steve Gorman – 2 hrs 9 mins ago - REUTERS

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Union moderates fighting for control of the deeply splintered Screen Actors Guild on Monday ousted the hard-line chief contract negotiator they blame for months of stalled labor talks with Hollywood's major studios.

Doug Allen, hired by SAG in 2006 after two decades as a top executive at the union for National Football League players, informed staff in an email that later surfaced on the Internet that SAG's governing board had fired him as both executive director and head of its bargaining team.

"I am disappointed in the board's decision," wrote Allen, a former linebacker and teammate of O.J. Simpson's on the Buffalo Bills. "I wish Screen Actors Guild and its members success and I have been honored to serve them."

Allen's dismissal, seen as likely to hasten efforts to reach a contract settlement without a strike threat, took the form of a "written assent," a seldom-used procedure that enables a majority of SAG's national directors to take action outside the boardroom.

It came two weeks after SAG's moderate faction, known as Unite For Strength, was thwarted by the union's more militant leaders in a bid to remove Allen and the rest of his bargaining team during a contentious two-day board meeting.

Union moderates accused Allen's allies on SAG's national board of resorting to "endless parliamentary games" to prevent an up-or-down vote during the January 12-13 session on whether to oust the entire negotiating committee.

"This unprecedented level of obstruction has paralyzed the guild," the moderates said in a letter to SAG members.

SAG President Alan Rosenberg, who has steadfastly supported his executive director, was quoted by Hollywood trade publication Daily Variety as saying of his removal, "This is the darkest day within my memory. It kills democracy at SAG."

The written assent called for replacing Allen as chief negotiator with John McGuire, a longtime senior advisor to the union who has been instrumental settling dozens of SAG contracts. Lawyer David White, who has served as general counsel for several years, is to succeed him as executive director on an interim basis.

The rest of negotiating panel is to be reconstituted as a "leaner" task force chosen by the board to seek a final deal with the studios.

SAG's 120,000 members have been without a film and prime-time TV contract since their old labor pact expired June 30, after negotiations collapsed and studio presented their "final" offer for a new deal.

The two sides were most firmly at odds on how actors should be paid for work on the Internet, seen widely as the main distribution pipeline for visual entertainment in the future.

Hollywood insiders have long said the studios were unlikely to budge enough to close a deal with SAG as long as Allen remained in place.

"This is a very positive move towards a deal," said Jonathan Handel, an entertainment lawyer with ties to both industry and management. "There's no doubt in my mind that the studios will sit down with the new negotiating team and have constructive discussions."

Allen and Rosenberg recently had only recently capitulated to dwindling support for their efforts to obtain a strike authorization from union rank-and-file.

They had promised instead to seek to reopen contract talks and to submit management's latest offer to members for a vote. But moderates who gained a slim majority on the 71-seat governing board in September elections said they had lost faith in Allen and insisted he go.

[SarahLove]

Thanks for sharing guys...

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Thanks for read!

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No problem guys....

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Fingers crossed the will have finished filming season 4 before they stop talking....