Candidates for SAG board set

Anne-Marie Johnson

Jay A. Fernandez – HollywoodReporter.com

The Screen Actors Guild released its official list of national officer and board candidates Monday night.

The candidates for national president are Seymour Cassel, Ken Howard, Anne-Marie Johnson and Asmar Muhammad. Howard represents the top of the Unite for Strength party ticket, and Johnson, the current 1st national vp, represents the top of the MembershipFirst party ticket.

Cassel narrowly lost to current outgoing president Alan Rosenberg, also a MembershipFirst stalwart, in 2007.

The candidates for secretary-treasurer are Amy Aquino and Connie Stevens.

Ken Howard

Aquino is a member of the U4S slate and Stevens is a member of the MF slate.

Both the president and secretary-treasurer positions carry two-year terms.

Approximately one-third of the 69 national board seats are open for election this year.

Ballots will be mailed to all eligible SAG members August 25, and they must be returned by Sept. 24. Election results are expected to be announced that evening.

Guild Overwhelmingly OK’s Contract With Producers

Lauren Horwitch – The Wrap.com

    The deal includes wage increase, an increase in pension and health contributions and residuals for new-media.

   The eleven-month standoff between the Screen Actors Guild and producers came to an end Tuesday night as SAG members voted overwhelmingly to approve the union’s new TV/theatrical contract with the AMPTP.

   A whopping 78 percent of members who returned ballots approved the ratification of the new contract. Thirty five percent of the 110,000 members who received ballots returned them by 5 p.m. Tuesday — an above average turn-out for SAG referendums.

   The vote count in the Hollywood Division was 70.7 percent to 29.3 percent in favor. In the New York Division, the vote count was 85.7 percent to 14.3 percent in favor. And in the Regional Branch Division, the vote count was 89.1 percent to 10.9 percent in favor.

   The contract provides $105 million in wage increases and other improvements, including a 3 percent wage increase, a .5 percent increase in pension and health contributions and residuals for new-media work similar to the guild’s home-video residuals.

   The pact goes into effect at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday and will expire June 30, 2011 — the same date AFTRA’s primetime TV contract is set to expire. The WGA’s contract with the studios’ group will expire a month earlier.

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