LOS ANGELES - The smaller of Hollywood's two performers unions entered a final day of contract talks with studios on Tuesday before the larger, more militant Screen Actors Guild was due to renew its own labor negotiations.
The 70,000-member American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, or AFTRA, opened talks with the studios on May 7, a day after separate negotiations between the studios and SAG, which represents 120,000 actors, hit a stalemate.
The contracts for both unions expire June 30, and Hollywood is nervous that the actors might go on strike, paralyzing the entertainment industry much as a 100-day walkout by screenwriters did earlier this year.
The industry already is in de facto strike mode, with studios starting to stockpile TV episodes and unwilling to launch work on movies that could be affected by a walkout.
The studios have rankled SAG and AFTRA alike by seeking new rules allowing TV and movie clips to be played on the Internet without prior consent from actors who appear in them. The unions, which share about 44,000 members, have singled out the clips dispute as the biggest stumbling block in their contract talks.
In a message to members on Sunday, AFTRA president Roberta Reardon said her union was looking for "a creative solution" that "will protect our members' images" while permitting a new legitimate market in online clips to flourish.
Regardless of the outcome, Reardon said her union would "brief SAG on our talks" before SAG and studios resume their negotiations.
SAG and the studios have agreed to return to the bargaining table by this Wednesday at the latest, giving the parties a little more than four weeks to reach a settlement before the existing labor pacts for both unions run out.
The nation's show business capital is recovering from the 14-week strike writers strike that ended in February after throwing the TV industry into disarray, delaying several film projects and idling thousands of production workers.
AFTRA and the studios, represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, had been expected to come to terms relatively quickly, perhaps days before the May 28 restart date with SAG.
But the two sides said they remained locked in discussions as of midday, with no further details to report. The Hollywood trade paper Daily Variety said AFTRA and the studios were believed to be nearing a tentative deal.
AFTRA's contract governs employment of actors on a handful of prime-time TV shows, accounting for a small piece of the Hollywood labor pie compared with the rest of prime time and the movie business as a whole covered under the SAG contract.
Nevertheless, the outcome of the AFTRA talks could signal the course of negotiations that lie ahead for SAG.
Some Hollywood experts have suggested that an AFTRA deal could help form the basis of a settlement with the larger union, much as the studios' contract with directors served as a framework for the writers' pact earlier this year.
A deadlock in AFTRA's talks, however, would likely set the stage for a more contentious round of negotiations once SAG and the studios resume their bargaining.
http://www.hollywood.com/news/Hollywood_Actors_Labor_Talks_Reach_Key_Juncture/5242694
