SAG-AFTRA Leaders Present United Front Ahead Of Contract Talks At L.A. Local’s Annual Membership Meeting

deadline.com:

SAG-AFTRA’s leadership, although often divided along internal party lines, presented a united front at the Los Angeles local’s annual membership meeting yesterday.

They stressed the importance of solidarity in advance of the guild’s upcoming contract negotiations, sources tell Deadline. “The members were clear that even though we have differences, we’re putting them aside for the best interests of the union as a whole going into the negotiations,” said a member who attended the meeting. “We are 100% unified.” The guild’s contract negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers begin June 7.

Their current contract expires June 30. President Fran Drescher and other leaders, including National Executive Director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, told the more than 500 members in attendance that the guild will be going to the bargaining table with “a strong set of proposals,” according to members who attended the four-hour virtual meeting. “Fran said how important the upcoming negotiations are going to be, and that we’re not messing around this time,” said another member. “She was enthusiastic and conveyed strength and solidarity.” She also mixed it up with those who questioned her comments to Deadline last Monday while on the Writers Guild’s picket line outside Paramount Studios.

Those comments have been mischaracterized by some to suggest that she was not showing enough solidarity with the writers’ strike, which she vehemently denied.