TVSquad

And now, another installment of 'David vs. Goliath'. In this case, David is The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), while the role of Goliath is portrayed by the Screen Actors Guild (SAG). For months, both unions have been negotiating with the studios for higher salaries for their lower-paid actors as well as more profits from DVD and new media sales. AFTRA, the smaller of the two actor unions, has been fairly quiet concerning these negotiations. SAG, on the other hand, has been quite boisterous concerning the poor negotiating tactics of the studios.

With the amount of muscle SAG has one would think they would have been able to get the better deal of the two unions. Yet, as in David's battle against Goliath, it looks like the little person got the better of the bigger one. On Tuesday, the 70,000 members of AFTRA ratified a new prime-time TV contract. According to AFTRA President Roberta Reardon, the new contract "contains substantial gains for every category of performer in both traditional and new media." This, despite a campaign by SAG members to persuade those who are members of both unions to vote "no" on the contract.

What consequences does this have for SAG? First, it undermines their efforts to obtain a richer deal from the studios. Second, it makes the possibility of an actors strike less likely since there's a chance that many dual-union actors would stay on the job as AFTRA performers. The possibility of a strike was not as great anyway since many actors were fatigued from dealing with this past winter's writers strike.

Still, SAG is not giving up in making its point for a better contract. SAG president Alan Rosenberg issued a statement calling AFTRA's new contract as "inadequate" and stating that he would vow to "continue to address the issues of importance to actors that AFTRA left on the table." That seems a bit high-handed to me and smacks as someone who is feeling the pressure to settle the contract disputes one way or another.

Meanwhile, AFTRA executives have called for a summit of actors and union leaders to discuss ways to bolster unity between unions. Also on the table is the possibility to merge the two unions into one. With AFTRA now in agreement with the studios and SAG still putting on a stubborn persona, I wonder if AFTRA would absorb SAG rather than vice-versa.