Attempt to stop strike authorization vote and replace Guild Negotiating Committee thwarted only by a marathon filibuster.

Posted: Wed., Jan. 14, 2009, 6:25pm PTSAG moderates to fight on
Board members still battling planned strike vote
By DAVE MCNARY

SAG's internecine battle over its strike authorization vote battle isn't over yet.
That was the message sent Wednesday by the slim majority of SAG board members who regrouped after the 30-hour boardroom brawl in which their efforts to remove the guild's national exec director Doug Allen, stop the strike authorization vote and replace the guild's negotiating committee were thwarted by a marathon filibuster mounted by Allen supporters.

But although they lost the battle, key board members vowed to continue working to block the planned strike vote from commencing this month.

"This is not over by any means," declared New York board member Paul Christie. "It is astounding to me that Doug Allen's mantra in doing all the damage he has done is that at the end of the day as the (national executive director) he is duty-bound to carry out the will of the majority of the national board."

Industry observers said it seemed nearly impossible for the guild to command the high threshold of approval needed for a strike authorization after such an extraordinary display of the union's divisive internal politics during the past few days.

Ned Vaughn, a spokesman for the Unite for Strength faction that won five board seats last fall on a campaign critical of SAG president Alan Rosenberg's regime and the Membership First board faction, told Daily Variety that the moderate coalition will press on with its agenda. Vaughn labeled the Monday-Tuesday board meeting a "colossal" waste of time and members' money.More than one option(Co) Daily Variety
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"A clear majority of the board wants to make important changes to protect the interests of our members, but Membership First will apparently stop at nothing to hold on to their control," Vaughn said. "They used every conceivable stalling tactic, including some that were highly improper, to run out the clock on our meeting. The will of the board may have been delayed, but it won't be denied."

Christie compared Rosenberg withRichard Nixon for his maneuvering to block the board vote on the resolution that would have axed Allen and tabled the strike vote.

"The collective will of the majority of the national board tried to speak," Christie said. Rosenberg "denied the union its right to self-determination. This was truly the guild's little Watergate moment, and just as shameful. This entire organization and its over 100,000 members are being held hostage by Alan Rosenberg and Doug Allen. It is not about the contracts, the members or the union. It is about them and only them."

SAG has stayed mum as to when the authorization ballots would go out. Rosenberg's indicated in interviews after the emergency 30-hour board meeting that the mailing would take place soon but didn't elaborate.

But SAG first VP Anne-Marie Johnson, Rosenberg's key ally, remained unapologetic Wednesday and asserted that the meeting had been "very democratic."

Johnson also insisted that her side was carrying out the will of the membership by blocking the moderates. She also asserted that the three-part resolution could not come to a vote because the moderates had failed to draft the resolution in the proper form.

"They were ill prepared to deal with the complexities of the issues, which are created when you take an action such as firing the national executive director," Johnson added. "My only obligation is to the membership and my union."

The SAG outlook remained uncertain Wednesday in the aftermath of the meeting in which Allen survived the dismissal attempt because the Membership First faction preventing the three-part resolution from coming to a vote -- one that was virtually certain to be approved. The moderates could make another run at getting the resolution approved by signatures from the board members or ask for another board meeting earlier than the next session in April.

Christie, a former New York SAG president, estimated that the two-day meeting had cost $100,000. And he declared that Allen and Rosenberg should resign for failing to close deals on any of the eight contracts that expired last year.

"As we have seen in the failed leadership in corporate America, the least that can be offered up are resignations," he added. "If we were a corporation, or under any imaginable business scenario, simply based on failures of policy and performance on every level, both would be fired, and rightfully so."

For his part, Allen sent a message to board members late Wednesday that he had proposed to various members outside the meeting that the strike authorization be put on hold and that the congloms’ final offer be sent to to the membership as a ratification vote. He said that the idea was rejected by some but that he’d continue to ask board members to take that route.

“I also proposed that, before that membership ratification vote, we meet immediately with the AMPTP to determine to what extent, if any, they are willing to improve their last offer, to maximize its chances for ratification,” he added. “I further proposed that the offer then be sent to the members with pro and con statements from national board members and that otherwise the guild would remain neutral during any member debate regarding ratification.”

Allen also urged the board members to stop fighting.

“It is unfortunate that the important matters contained in the National Board meeting ag enda were not accomplished at the meeting Jan. 12 and 13,” he said. “I know that opinions vary sharply on why that happened. From my perspective, to the extent AMPTP positions or actions are the problem, the solution cannot be determined by how intensely you fight among yourselves.”