Unions to bargain jointly on commercials pact

By Leslie Simmons and Carl DiOrio

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Leaders of the Screen Actors Guild and its smaller sister union, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, are finally on the same page.

But the newfound harmony, after months of strained relations between the groups, does not concern the subject of SAG's long-stalled contract negotiations with Hollywood studios but rather the actors unions' next round of talks with advertising industry groups.

AFTRA leaders have told SAG president Alan Rosenberg that AFTRA would be willing to bargain jointly with SAG on their respective memberships' next contracts covering commercials.

"We have been authorized to extend an offer to return to joint negotiations for the upcoming commercials contracts under the terms of the Phase One agreement," AFTRA president Roberta Reardon and national executive director Kim Roberts Hedgpeth said in a letter disclosed Monday.

For decades, Phase One had provided for joint bargaining on all sorts of SAG and AFTRA contracts, until AFTRA shelved the agreement before the start of film and TV talks with the studios this year.

But on Monday, SAG and AFTRA were arguing only on whose idea it was to get back together for the commercials negotiations. SAG said Monday that AFTRA's letter to Rosenberg was in response to an offer SAG made to its sister union in July regarding the prospect of joint negotiating on the commercials contract.

"In spite of the fact that AFTRA did not respond prior to our July 26, 2008, board meeting, as we requested, the SAG national board of directors authorized Screen Actors Guild to participate in a Phase One joint negotiation," Rosenberg and SAG national exec director Doug Allen said in a letter to AFTRA leadership Monday.

The current contracts covering SAG and AFTRA members on commercials work expire on October 28. In 2006, the unions granted a two-year extension to current agreements with the Association of National Advertisers and the American Association of Advertising Agencies to allow time for a study on new-media compensation that was jointly commissioned with the ad groups.

"Despite our institutional differences -- characterized grossly inaccurately and with great hostility by you in your letter -- our offer to negotiate together stands," the SAG leaders wrote. "We await your response."

Meanwhile, it also was disclosed that Reardon and Roberts Hedgpeth had contacted AFL-CIO president John Sweeney to seek federation mediation in lingering disagreements between AFTRA and SAG.

The squabbles trace to turf disputes over the past couple of years that ultimately derailed Phase One and AFTRA's joint bargaining with SAG on a new primetime TV contract. AFTRA hammered out an agreement on its own, which was passed by members despite SAG efforts to defeat the pact.

In their letter to AFTRA leadership, Rosenberg and Allen said they were open to the idea of AFL-CIO mediation.

"We are certainly willing to engage with AFTRA in discussions with the AFL-CIO about the ongoing relationship of our organizations," the SAG duo said.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter