1/29/2009

in

Talks move forward with SAG's new negotiating team

Sara Kimball

The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), which negotiates on behalf of the Hollywood movie studios, announced late Wednesday that they would commence contract negotiations next week, reports the [Los Angeles Times](http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/editorials/la-ed-sag29-2009jan29,0,5833932.story).  
  
SAG's 120,000-members have been working without a contract since last June.Stalled labor talks and increased division over whether to push for a strike authorization vote led the union to reorganize its negotiating team in recent days.  
  
Former general counsel David White has taken over in the interim for ousted Executive Director Doug Allen, and Guild Senior Adviser John T. McGuire is now head negotiator. In addition, SAG's board also replaced the union's negotiating committee with a task force mandated to secure a television/theatrical contract that will be acceptable to its members.  
  
SAG's new task force is expected to accept contract proposals modeled on those reached between the studios and the screenwriters' and directors' guilds.