SAG SAYS "INFORMAL" TALKS CONTINUE

Screen Actors Guild National Executive Director Doug Allen assured members Sunday that union negotiators are continuing to participate in informal talks with members of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

Progress doesn’t have to occur directly across a table,” he wrote in an email. “Discussions through alternative channels are ongoing as we work toward a fair deal for actors as soon as possible.” While Allen referred to several issues that remain a top priority for union negotiators, including jurisdiction over programs produced for the Internet, residuals for new media productions, product integration, and force majeure, conspicuously missing from the message was any mention of an increase DVD residuals, a matter the AMPTP has said it will refuse to discuss. Meanwhile, in an interview with New York Times, union President Alan Rosenberg criticized an insurgent union members who have criticized SAG’s negotiating strategy and have put up a slate of candidates to oppose the current leadership. “It is not productive to come out and attack leadership during a negotiation,” Rosenberg told the newspaper. Asked about charges that leaders had made mistakes in the negotiations, he replied: “It’s a lie! We haven’t bungled anything. We’ve been doing a phenomenal job.”