SAG may still be itching for a fight
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You had to figure that SAG was going to rattle its own saber a little bit after the WGA was ready to wrap things up -- which still has not happened by the way -- to make the AMPTP nervous about their own contract negotiations that could happen anytime between now and June. I kind of feel sorry for the AMPTP, maybe just a little bit, since they have to do this three times whereas the labor unions only have to go through this once each. That's immediately destroyed though with their atrocious behavior over the past 3.5 months so screw them, let 'em cry over their $30 million-per-year paychecks.
SAG members will reportedly strike this summer after their current contract expires on June 30 if negotiations with studio bosses over pay and conditions do not prove fruitful.
But Hanks and Clooney are hopeful a strike can be avoided.
They write: "A strike by the actors is certainly a possibility this summer, but is by no means inevitable.
So says Hollywood.com; what's interesting here is that I'm pretty sure the WGA secured a clause in the new media section that allows them to benefit from SAG's contract, if SAG gets a better deal on those specific issues -- something the DGA didn't think to do when they were putting that second coat of wax on the honcho's pen... er, cars -- and so will obviously benefit from SAG taking a hard line against the AMPTP.
They still seem pretty pissed and it'd be nice to see the AMPTP get slapped around not once, but twice this year. Maybe it'll be enough to make the DGA grow a pair in three years, but probably not.
Don't forget, that three years from now, the WGA's contract will be up sometime in May, not October, placing them right there with SAG which ought to strengthen both unions considerably. I would love to see the WGA revisit both reality and DVD residuals then, in concert with SAG, and put labor unions back on the map. Consider also that at that point, we may be living under a Democratic administration, which could empower the unions and, in fact, they could even be operating under new laws that the Democratic congress has been trying to pass over cold, dead bodies of the GOP.
This fight was expected to be bloody, and it was. The next one should be far more intriguing though, more strategy, less foot stomping and breath-holding, and representative of a shift in the balance of power in Hollywood.
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