That’s a wrap

Ending more than two years of labor drama in Hollywood, the Screen Actors Guild ratified a contract with the major Hollywood studios on Tuesday, its members turning out in unusually large numbers to approve a deal similar to the ones the other talent unions signed last year. A process that began with the Writers Guild of America demanding twice as much compensation from DVDs, and the studios proposing to eliminate the cherished residual system, ended with contracts for all the unions that left DVDs unchanged and residuals intact, albeit less generous. More important, with the last contract in place, the film and television industries can finally return to full production.

Yet Hollywood’s labor peace is illusory. SAG President Alan Rosenberg, who had campaigned vigorously against the contract, disparaged it as “devastatingly unsatisfactory.” His stance reflects the tension within the union between his hard-line faction and the more moderate wing that took control last fall, a tension that also divides SAG and the American Federation of Radio and Television Artists. Similarly, the more aggressive elements of the talent unions remain bitter about the Directors Guild of America reaching a deal with the studios while the writers were on strike, and AFTRA agreeing to terms while SAG was still negotiating.

So the fact that all of Hollywood’s workers are finally under contract doesn’t mean they’re all on the same page. And it’s probably unreasonable to expect them to be -- each union has its own priorities and unique concerns. Further complicating matters, the TV actors represented by AFTRA will be on a higher pay scale than their SAG counterparts, who received no raise last year because of the contract impasse. But one lesson of these negotiations is that unless SAG and other talent unions are willing to compromise with one another, they don’t have much hope of forcing concessions on the studios.

Perhaps the most hotly contested section of the new contract deals with compensation for works used online. The terms of this section -- which critics say provides too little for union members, but supporters say reflects how little revenue video generates online -- expire in two years. As they spend that time looking for ways to bargain together, actors, writers and directors also should be trying to take advantage of do-it-yourself opportunities on the Internet. After all, if they beat the studios to the magic formula for success online, they won’t be so dependent on the work the studios provide.