SAG MEETING SUNDAY 2/8

Posted: Sat., Feb. 7, 2009, 11:27am
PTSAG leaders to meet Sunday
Guild majority aims to work around legal battle
By DAVE MCNARY\

The moderate majority of SAG leaders will attempt Sunday to put feature-primetime negotiations back on track by trying to defuse president Alan Rosenberg's extraordinary legal challenge.
In a message sent to supporters Saturday, the Unite For Strength faction said it plans to take the "procedural step" at a national board meeting Sunday to prevent further delays in the negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers. SAG's feature-primetime contract expired June 30 and the last set of negotiations took place in November.

Though the group didn't specify its plans, it's a strong indication that the moderates -- who hold a narrow majority -- will again attempt to pass a resolution to fire national exec director and chief negotiator Doug Allen and oust the feature-primetime negotiating committee.

Rosenberg led a 28-hour filibuster to prevent a vote on that resolution on Jan. 12-13, prompting the 41 moderate board members to use a "written assent" to approve the measure on Jan. 26 and re-start the contract talks. But those talks were pushed back indefinitely last Monday after Rosenberg and three other board members announced plans to sue SAG and the 41 members to overturn the written assent.

Despite being turned down in efforts to obtain a temporary restraining order, Rosenberg's attorneys have promised they'll press on with the suit and seek an appeal of the judge's ruling denying the request for the court order. Judge James Chalfant told Rosenberg that the suit was unlikely to succeed.

Rosenberg's continued to insist that he's trying to prevent the moderates from making an unacceptable deal with the congloms. The Unite For Stregth missive characterized the recent events as "a week even the most jaded couldn't have foreseen" and called the suit "outrageous."

"As long as such uncertainty exists, negotiations will ultimately be in question too," it added. "In light of this, a National Board meeting has been called for Sunday, Feb. 8, where the board will vote on a procedural step to ensure that President Rosenberg's lawsuit cannot once again delay the TV/Theatrical negotiations. This will allow us to move forward and get on with the real work you elected us to do. We urge President Rosenberg and his allies to drop their resistance to the important changes the Board has put into effect and join us in bringing stability and excellence back to the governance of the Screen Actors Guild."

Feb. 17-18 has emerged as the earliest available dates for negotiations if SAG prevails over Rosenberg. Spokesmen for SAG and the AMPTP have said that nothing definite had been set.

The uncertainty over SAG's contract situation has been a factor in slowing down feature production. A below-the-line organization dubbing itself "Back to Work" has scheduled a 1 p.m. rally for Monday at SAG's Hollywood headquarters to urge the guild to re-launch negotiations.

"The refusal to negotiate has gone on for too long," it said in a message in its web site at [Only admins are allowed to see this link] "25,000 people in the entertainment industry are out of work due to production slow down. This doesn't include the countless others affected by the economic downturn in Los Angeles and nation wide, due to the state of stalled negotiations. Those who supply and service the entertainment industry are being hit just as hard."