Actors union moderates move closer to voting out chief negotiator

Moderates on the Screen Actors Guild board moved closer Monday night toward ousting Doug Allen, the union’s controversial executive director and chief negotiator who has been on the job for just two years.

Rebuking the union's leadership, a group of board members from New York, Hollywood and the union’s regional branches introduced a resolution calling for Allen to be fired. The board members contend that the former Buffalo Bills linebacker has mishandled negotiations and fostered deep divisions inside the union. Actors have been without a contract for six months. The resolution also called for disbanding the union’s negotiating committee and replacing it with a new group that would seek to restart talks with the studios.

Although moderates hold a slight majority on the 71-member board, they were unable to put the measure to a vote because of parliamentary maneuvers orchestrated by Allen’s backers. The moves appeared to be aimed at forestalling any action against Allen -- closely aligned with SAG President Alan Rosenberg -- and allowing a planned strike authorization vote to proceed.

Nonetheless, a vote determining Allen’s fate could come late tonight or tomorrow morning, when the board meeting is scheduled to resume in Los Angeles. If Allen is fired, the planned strike referendum that was originally scheduled to begin Jan. 2 would probably be scrapped.

-- Richard Verrier