News: Actors Against SAG Strike

Over a hundred members of the Screen Actors Guild met in New York last night, to discuss some hot button issues that have been plaguing the guild for the past few months. Learning from the mistakes of the WGA, many actors were in support of a letter that urged SAG leaders not to allow a union strike. Several well known actors including George Clooney, Morgan Freeman, Tom Hanks and Sally Field signed the letter hoping to counteract a strike authorization.

Below is a snippet from the letter that was sent to the SAG board, courtesy of  Digital Media Law .

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.

As hard as it may be to wait those three years under an imperfect agreement, we believe this is what we must do. We think that a public statement should be made by SAG recognizing that although this is not a deal we want, it is simply not a time when our union wants to have any part in creating more economic hardship while so many people are already suffering.

As you can see the bad economy is hitting everyone. So many jobs would be lost if a SAG strike occurred. I’m happy to see that some actors are looking at the bigger picture. How do you feel about the SAG situation. Do they need to strike, or should they just wait it out?