MUMBAI: AFTRA (American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) national committee has voted in favour of the uncertain primetime/TV agreement reached with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers last month. The contract has now been sent to 70,000 members for ratification.

Meanwhile, SAG (Screen Actors Guild) is planning to launch an anti-AFTRA deal campaign because SAG‘s plea “to delay the ratification until SAG negotiates its own feature-primetime deal was rejected by AFTRA”. SAG finds itself in an awry situation as it has to negotiate a new contract before its current one expires in June.

SAG‘s national executive committee voted with 13 members favouring and 10 against the launch of a campaign to oppose the AFTRA deal. SAG is the dominant actors‘ union with 122,000 members as compared to AFTRA which consists of 70,000 members. But AFTRA consists of recording artists, radio announcers and actors who work in the less-glamorous arenas of daytime and cable television.

There are around 44,000 members who belong to both unions and SAG will seek to target these dual members in the campaign that will cost the association more than $100,000. SAG Executive Director Doug Allen said in a statement that the union “will be educating SAG members about the impact of the AFTRA deal on our negotiations and on our effort to secure the best possible contract for actors.”

SAG believes that the AFTRA deal does not address key demands, including a boost in residuals that actors earn from the sale of DVDs and having consent over how products are pitched in TV shows and movies. SAG and AFTRA are negotiating separately for the first time in three decades due to bitter jurisdictional disputes for cable TV shows.