As expected, the membership of the Screen Actors Guild has voted to ratify and accept the new contract that many campaigned against. The vote was 78%, which is a little higher than I was expecting.
If you scan the websites that have been tracking or debating the vote, you'll find a wide range of interpretations as to what this vote means. The 37,000 or so members who cast ballots probably had at least 3,700 reasons among them but I'll throw this one out as a likely one: Even actors who thought the contract was inadequate didn't feel their guild had enough solidarity or leadership to do anything about it. In order to get people to reject Plan A, you have to have a Plan B…and SAG didn't really have one. Or anyone out front who could put one into place.
So now all eyes turn to June of 2011 when the contracts of the Writers Guild, the Directors Guild, SAG and AFTRA all expire within a few weeks of each other, thereby melding into one big negotiation. Can four labor organizations that often go in different directions and sometimes sell one another out…can they instead link arms for their common good? Probably not…but I can't wait to see how they/we blow it.