Monday, October 13, 2008

Industry Strike Update

Here's a quick recap of last week in the film industry:  According to an email from the Screen Actor's Guild, SAG is moving forward to try to authorize a strike.  "The advisory motion recommends that the national board should send a strike authorization referendum to SAG members, support the passage of the strike authorization, and run a member education campaign in support of the measure." This email also speaks of "qualified" voters. I've heard rumors that SAG wants to no longer allow all dues paying members to vote, but rather allow only members who have earned a certain amount of money in the last year to be able to vote. I'm assuming this is only a rumor, as that would be absurd. I am also bothered by the "education campaign" since all prior literature thus far has been very one-sided. It doesn't seem like they realize that if producers have less money, then nobody works--including us SAG members.  On the other side of the coin, Variety reported good news. Hollywood Studios are moving forward in a leap of faith, with 40 new movies going into production at long last.  This would be a devastating blow for them if SAG actually did strike.  But in this awful economy, and presuming that more than 75% of SAG members do not want to strike, they feel that people need to go back to work.  

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