Actor’s Union Committee To Reconsider Contract

Following the union’s rejection of a newly proposed contract with the video game industry, officials from the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) have announced that SAG president Melissa Gilbert and National Executive Director/CEO Greg Hessinger will convene a special meeting of the national board on Wednesday, June 29th. The meeting will consider again the rejected contract, which has already been approved by the smaller American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA) union. The contract had also been recommended by the SAG negotiating committee and SAG staffers, putting pressure on the national executive committee to ratify it. "When the NEC rejected the tentative contract earlier this week, we said we’d explore all our remaining options," said Hessinger. "Since then, we have received feedback from enough of our membership to conclude that this matter must be brought before the full board for its consideration." The new contract has been hotly disputed since both SAG and AFTRA argued that actors were being underpaid for their work in video games. The new contract increases wages by 36 percent, but does not include any provision to obtain residuals or share in profits – the main sticking point for SAG’s national executive committee.