Thank God the writer’s strike is over and the directors came to an agreement! At last we can count on an uninterrupted stream of entertainment! After all, once the writers and directors are in place, what more do you need?

That’s right my snark-concious friend, there’s a zinger coming. The actors’ contract expires June 30th, and if they don’t manage to negotiate another one before then, it’s going to be trouble. And SAG and AFTRA are already fighting with each other about who has the right to negotiate, publically sniping each other. To make matters worse, if those two guilds get it together, there is another movement brewing to disallow some actors from getting to vote. Basically the actors who are making a living want to cut out the ones who aren’t. It’s kind of a 1 to 700 ratio. And by the way, that huge unemployment figure only includes actors who have MADE it into the guild, which is why it’s so easy to get a free actor in this town.

If it comes down to it, this could turn uglier than the writer’s strike. Management has the upper hand here for a variety of reasons. One is the aforementioned fact that actors are more common than dirt. If you can’t get one guy for a part, you can take one of the 45 in the lobby who look like him, and he’ll probably offer to wash your car too. I’m not talking about movie stars here. Those people don’t need the guild, because they have negotiating power by themselves. I’m talking about Terrorist #2, I’m talking about Short Bellhop. The guys who have two lines tops.

And since producers recognize the revenue streams are slowing down, they’re ready to take stab at union-busting. They jerked the writers around plenty, and actors shouldn’t expect different. After all, they’re unskilled labor.

I think all this inter-union squabbling is a reaction to the realization that they’ve got a weak negotiating position. Rats in a box, as my old improv guru used to say. They did an experiment once where they put a bunch of rats in a box and shook it. The rats were upset, but they couldn’t do anything about the box, so they attacked each other instead.

Actors, who are emotional and a little irrational for a living, are going to find it harder to organize than most. The only thing that might save them is they tend to want other people to give them things to say. If SAG and AFTRA can agree on who is writing the script, then perhaps it will be smooth sailing. If anyone wants me though, I’m hiding in the lifeboat. Just in case.

-daniel k.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 at 5:23 am and is filed under Acting, General, Motion Pictures, Television. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.