Clooney Strives for Neutrality in the Latest Union Battle

Posted by Robin Ruinsky (robin@filmschoolrejects.com) on June 27, 2008

George Clooney

Get out your light sabers! Get ready for the latest sequel to Star Wars! Alright, it’s not long ago in a galaxy far far away, but in Hollywood where the Stars are choosing sides, lining up to go toe to toe with each other and the two performers unions that govern their lives.

The unions are the Screen Actors Guild, SAG and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, AFTRA. SAG has a bigger membership and a shorter catchier name. Not all performers belong to both unions and SAG is the big guy on the block.

If this was that other Star Wars you would see Yoda in negotiations with the inhabitants of the Death Star also known as the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers.

“A line in the sand, draw we must!” Yoda would declare.

The Producers would respond with heavy breathing.

And then there’s George Clooney doing his best Han Solo imitation. He declares he’s neutral! He has no time for these battles. He’s his own man. He’s got his Millennium Falcon and a wad of cash and he’s not taking sides. But he has volunteered to be a member of a panel, a stellar collection of actors who will negotiate for the little people.

Alan Rosenberg the President of SAG, the Ben Obi Wan Kenobi of this dark morality take whispers “Beware the Dark Side” as he watches the Stars edge towards mutiny against their union.

Some facts. SAG has a membership of 70,000. AFTRA has a membership of 44,000. They’ve been at odds with each other for a long time and attempts to merge the two unions has been as easy as a marriage between Darth Vader and Princess Leia. They usually go into contract negotiations together. This year they didn’t.

AFTRA reached a tentative agreement in May with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers while SAG is now in its 39^th day of negotiations. SAG wants AFTRA’s membership to turn down the new contract. AFTRA’s leadership is not happy with SAG’s defiant stance.

Back to George Clooney. He does have a good idea, though it’s unrelated to the contract negotiations.

The current SAG cap on dues is $6000. All those actors making 20, 30 million a movie are paying far less percentage wise into the union than their out of work table waiting counterparts. Clooney wants dues to be $6000 per million earned. It’s a good idea that could go a long way to beefing up the coffers of the pension and health care funds.

But I already hear the distant sound of discontented millionaires crying foul and I see Clooney being encased in a block of carbonite by his less than generous colleagues.

Meanwhile, work is slowing to a stop as the entertainment world waits to see if SAG will sign a contract or call for a strike. Personally, I don’t think the Union or the Producers have the energy for another strike after the Writers Guild had their lengthy walkout this past winter.

And if there is a strike how is this new Star Wars movie going to be made?

I’m waiting to hear Clooney say his big Han Solo line:

“I take orders from just one person: me.”