The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) is anything but united right now… and that’s a very good thing for the movie industry and everyone involved with it as a whole.
Here’s the basic cole’s notes version:
– The SAG leadership has called for e vote authorizing the leadership to call a strike if negotiations with eh Producers Association fails.
– The East Coast faction of SAG is screaming at the West coast faction to NOT strike… things have gotten heated
– Now, a bunch of big name actors have sent a petition to the SAG leadership saying they don’t support any strike action. The names on the list include: George Clooney, Tom Hanks, Alec Baldwin, Cameron Diaz, Steve Carell, Jennifer Garner, Charlize Theron, Matt Damon, Morgan Freeman, David Boreanaz, Ewan McGregor, Sally Field, Michael C. Hall, Felicity Huffman, Rob Lowe, Kevin Spacey, Josh Brolin, Pierce Brosnan, Glenn Close, Donald Sutherland, Billy Crystal, Ted Danson, Kelsey Grammer, Edward Norton, Tobey Maguire, Bradley Whitford and Helen Hunt.
– The language of the petition sent to the leadership reads like this: “”We feel very strongly that SAG members should not vote to authorize a strike at this time. We don’t think that an authorization can be looked at as merely a bargaining tool. It must be looked at as what it is—an agreement to strike if negotiations fail. We support our union and we support the issues we’re fighting for, but we do not believe in all good conscience that now is the time to be putting people out of work.”
Ok… so my thoughts on the topic are as follows:
You would have to have the intelligence of a brain dead moose to even consider saying the word “strike” right now in the current economic environment both the industry and the country finds itself in. Complete and total morons. To strike now, still in the horrible aftermath of the WGA strike (which no one won and everybody lost) and in the current financial crisis the entire country finds itself in, would be the act of total imbeciles.
Luckily, it seems like he wise members of the east coast faction of SAG as well as the actors mentioned above realize that now is not to the time for a fight. Wait till the time is right, then go after what you want or need. Don’t be stupid and sink the whole ship just to get an extra life jacket.
