Tom Hanks, Alec Baldwin back dissidents in SAG fight

The fight for control of the Screen Actors Guild took a dramatic turn today, when Tom Hanks, Alec Baldwin and Sally Field joined several other high-profile actors in endorsing a group of dissidents mounting an election challenge to leaders of Hollywood’s largest union.

A group known as Unite for Strength said it had lined up support from several dozen high-profile backers for a slate of candidates who are seeking to fill 11 Hollywood division seats on the national board of the Screen Actors Guild, plus 22 seats for those who serve as alternate board members.

The challengers are taking direct aim at Membership First, the Hollywood-based political group within SAG that holds a slight majority on the national board and came to power in 2005 vowing to take a harder line in negotiations with the studios.

They accuse the incumbents of mishandling the current contract negotiations and waging a misguided campaign to discredit the smaller actors union, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, which recently reached a new three-year contract with the studios.

In an e-mail message distributed to 38,000 Hollywood SAG members, Field, who won an Oscar for “Norma Rae” and currently stars in the TV series “Brothers & Sisters,” urged her colleagues to support the dissidents in order “to end the senseless war with AFTRA and start building a united front of actors to fight for more working opportunities and better pay.”

The Sept. 18 election could be pivotal in charting the union's course and determining whether, and how soon, the stalemate with the studios ends.

Membership First has lined up its share of top-drawer backers and candidates. The candidates include Joely Fisher, star of the sitcom " 'Til Death"; Keith Carradine, who played a special agent in the "Dexter" TV series; and Scott Bakula, known for his role as the captain in "Star Trek: Enterprise."

Membership First, which has made issues affecting so-called middle-class actors a priority issue, opposes merging the two unions, contending that AFTRA has too many nonactors as members.

-- Richard Verrier

Photo: AFP / Getty Images

Questions? Comments? E-mail richard.verrier@latimes.com.

Comments

[elishay]

I am all for a new outlook and approach. I stopped going to SAG meetings long ago because it started to feel like student council, only less organized. As a dual cardholder, I am just as concerned as anyone else about the best possible outcome. The vast majority of union members are struggling just to make a living wage, and that's ultimately what this is about. I also know that with the current landscape - economic and otherwise - and seeing just how devastating the writers' strike was, that nobody can afford to be on strike again. There's proving a point and then there's taking it too far. It's clear that the methods Membership First has been using haven't made much headway, and Unite for Strength is taking an approach that is far more proactive, logical and open minded. Every new platform needs a launching pad, and I believe this one has the most spring in it.

[masterpuff theater]

What a joke. Tom Hanks lives in a mansion and could care less about middle class actors. The same goes for Sally Field and Alec Baldwin, two blowhards who believe their own hype. When was the last time they worked a day rate? Or worried about mileage, or had problems meeting their deductible on health insurance? they don't even pay dues, the studio pays it for them. Go chill out in Hawaii or Italy or wherever rich people go to get fat, and quit shilling for the same corporate lizards who could care less about working actors and their families.

[AFTRA/SAG Union]

As a DUEL member, I for one have ALWAYS felt the two should have merged. This current group of chaotic crybabies have done NOTHING but create havoc.

SAG and AFTRA should MERGE......YESTERDAY! (we are sick of paying dues to two Unions)

[RUTH LAST]

SUPPORT YOUR POSITION GOOD LUCK

[Trudi Goodmaan]

What middle class actors. Approximately 97% of SAG actors make 1,000 dollars or less a year. I would love to be middle class. I am a professional actor and yet I live on food stamps.
Tom Hanks and Sally Fields clearly care about the small time actors. They do not see themselves as A-list. It is time for the Allens 2 to go bye bye for good.

[oclatham]

I work as a BackGround Actor. I WOULD like to find out Unite For Strength are going to do for The BackGround Actor? Who Just Happen to hold The Majority vote for SAG. If They want OUR VOTE, they need to LET us know what they will do for us. If we do not hear ANYTHING, only means THEY will NOT do anything!

[Kathryn Burnett]

I'm a SAG member and I now live in the Bay Area, where opportunities are different...Thanks to the LA Times, I'm no longer homesick, but I'm kinda glad to be gone. Tom Hanks is a nice man, leave him alone. He's probably patronizing enough to be looking our for your interests...Wassup Tom?,
NYPD sgt. Caitlin, the Terminal.
P.S. Oops! I wasn't SAG then... only nonunion players allowed,

[John C.]

I'm a long-time member of SAG as well. And I agree whole-heartedly that, as in modern American society itself, the middle class is vanishing or already HAS vanished. It is sad that these "crusaders" have missed the mark completely. For one thing, truth be told, these Unite For Strength actors want "non-working" actors to have NO VOTE in Screen Actors Guild; probably utilizing earning data to determine who to throw out into the cold. Second point is (and they should know this) that SAG and AFTRA jobs are two different working conditions and require different coverages and policies. Given that fact, anyone who knows a lick about acting realizes that they should and do require different sets of skills. To throw every media actor under one umbrella would be the same as saying to a brick-layer that they can now work as a carpenter too! That's what the merger would have accomplished. And since when does excluding the greatest numbers of actors from voting STRENGTHEN the union? They're the ones who should have FIRST votes as they know what it's like to be unemployed. That philosophy certainly didn't work for the Bush Administration. Why would we want an Aristocracy for our SAG union?