Brothers & Sisters

The Screen Actors’ Guild has been surrounded by controversy as a dissident group formed to raise the issue about the Membership First, the Hollywood-based political group in the Screen Actors Guild that holds a fair majority on the national board.  Membership First came to power in 2005, and since then has been blamed for weakly negotiating and further discrediting the American Federation of Television and Radio (AFTRA) , which recently signed a three-year contract with the studios.

"We think the current leadership has put SAG on a dangerous path," veteran actor Ned Vaughn said last month.  The dissident group, aptly named Unite for Strength, is currently aiming to fill 11 seats in the national board, whose elections will be held come September.  The candidates who are part of the said group include Private Practice’s Kate Walsh and Amy Brennenman, Desperate Housewives’ Doug Savant, and Chicago Hope’s Adam Arkin.

More recently, another batch of Hollywood A-listers joined the Unite for Strength.  These actors include Tom Hanks, Alec Baldwin, and Brothers and Sisters star, Sally Field, who recently sent out a statement via email, expressing her thoughts on the issue and urging her co-SAG members to support the union and “end the senseless war with AFTRA and start building a united front of actors to fight for more working opportunities and better pay.”

The political turmoil, which has gotten worse through the weeks, reflect the similar path that SAG took back in the 1990s when a group of actors known as the Performers Alliance challenged then-SAG president Richard Masur.  Nonetheless, this conflict is seen as a burden to those who want reform.

"It definitely doesn't help us negotiate a contract when there are two unions pitted against each other," Walsh said. "We need to be one union."

First vice president of SAG, Kent McCord says that the critics took part in the turmoil that the organization is now experiencing.  He says that the critics made "a pretty desperate attempt to divide the union.  The fact of the matter is, in these negotiations working members have a real concern about the issues on the table and, overall, are united in what the union is trying to do."

The election for the SAG positions is to be held on September 18.


-Valerie Anne del Castillo, BuddyTV Staff Columnist
Source: LA Times, LA Times Blog
(Photo courtesy of ABC)