SAG National Committee Rejects Interactive Media Contract News

The Screen Actorâ??s Guild has today announced that their National Committee has rejected the agreement jointly drawn up on June 8th 2005 with various videogame companies and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), whoâ??ve already signed on the dotted line.

Negotiations began in February 2005 on the new Interactive Media Agreement before talks broke in May after authorisation to strike was passed. The June 8th 2005 agreement was tentatively settled ahead of the votes by the SAG and AFTRA National Committees, and would have been in place for the next three and a half years with a 36% increase in pay and benefits.

The sticking point for SAGâ??s National Committee has been revealed as the refusal by videogame producers to link additional income for performers to the performance of a game they worked on.

â??The video game market has grown to be enormously profitable, and our members have played a tremendous role in generating those profits,â? said SAG National Executive Director/CEO Greg Hessinger. â??The bargaining committee and staff of Screen Actors Guild worked extremely hard over the course of many months to negotiate fairer terms and conditions for the actors who do this work. While the tentative agreement they reached included several key gains, the Guildâ??s National Executive Committee has made the final determination that this proposal was not enough. We will now explore our options.â?

The agreement between the videogame companies and AFTRA will begin on July 1st 2005. Weâ??ll have more soon...