AFTRA Accepts Hollywood Labor Deal

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Rafat Ali

paidContent.org
Wednesday, July 9, 2008; 2:07 AM

AFTRA, the smaller of Hollywood's two performers unions, has ratified its earlier three year deal with the producers..the labor pact with major studios covering 70,000 members won final approval despite an unusual all-out campaign by SAG urging some 40,000 actors who belong to both unions to vote down the AFTRA accord, reports Reuters. More than 62 percent of AFTRA members casting ballots voted in favor of the new contract, the union said.

Terms in the AFTRA pact mirror those in the contracts signed by the WGA and DGA, along with the producers' final offer to SAG. SAG, which plans to deliver its formal response to the studios on Thursday, issued a statement calling AFTRA's new contract "inadequate" vowing to "continue to address the issues of importance to actors that AFTRA left on the table."

Variety: SAG had been hoping that a defeat of the AFTRA deal would give it the increased leverage it needs to obtain better terms. Instead, it now faces the unsavory prospect of AFTRA signing up new shows shot on digital - an area of shared jurisdiction - with the new contract.

More details in release.

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