Someone once said that the way to understand the Screen Actors Guild was to note that its membership could be divided into two groups…
- The crazed militants and…
- The really crazed militants.
That's a joke but it's not without its truth. In past years, both kinds of crazed militants have managed to find common ground, link arms and behave like a union. In fact, at times it's been a very effective union that did right by its members and also by the entire industry. This year is not one of those times.
Actor Mike Farrell (a sane, smart man) wrote an overview of the problems and a report on a recent board meeting that should give you an idea of the situation.
It's starting to look like this thing will be resolved in our lifetime. The union's new TV-Theatrical Task Force will probably negotiate a deal with the AMPTP that will provide terms a wee bit better than what was previously on the table. This will not be a great contract and actors in the "Membership First" contingent will rightly say it's not good enough. But enough members will think it's time to end this thing and start rebuilding a shattered guild so it can fight again another day…and I'm guessing the offer will pass, though not in a landslide.
The M.F. group was not wrong about where they should go but they were probably wrong about how to get there. In the end, everyone has lost. If they can all manage to be good losers, they may be able to become a union again by the time the next contract has to be negotiated.