Actor Unions SAG, AFTRA Set To Merge

For more than 60 years, Hollywood's television actors have had the choice of joining one or both unions available representing them to the studios. But 2012 could be the year that those two unions become one.

Negotiations between the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the Screen Actors Guild have concluded, with both sides saying they are going back to their respective unions to recommend a merger. It's not clear if one union will fold into the other, or if a whole new organization with a new name will be formed. But it is expected that AFTRA, with its 80,000 members, will become a part of SAG with its 140,000 members, by mid-year.

In a joint statement, SAG national president Ken Howard and AFTRA national president Roberta Reardon said the fact that there is a preliminary agreement is a "tremendously gratifying" accomplishment after the work they've done over the past year.

"We are confident our members will agree that we have created something we can all be proud of -- actors, singers, broadcasters, dancers, voiceover artists, background actors, stunt persons and all entertainment and media professionals that will be represented by this new union," they said. "The consensus process allowed our [negotiating committee] members to fully discuss, debate and reach agreement on critical provisions that form a strong foundation for a single union that will protect and strengthen the future for all our members."

While combined membership of the two unions is about 225,000 on paper, a merged union would not be quite that big. Many actors are members of both unions, but it's not clear how many. It's possible the new union would be in about the 170,000 range.

AFTRA was founded in 1937 as the American Federation of Radio Artists, succeeding the Radio Actors Guild founded two years earlier that helped establish actors equity through collective bargaining.

SAG is actually the older of the two, founded in 1933 designed to remove exclusive, multi-year contracts the studios were forcing actors to sign. It's because of SAG's initial efforts that actors no longer had to be tied to specific studios, and could seek out different projects despite the studio producing it.

Today's collective bargaining requires a much more unified approach, especially with so many forms of distribution now available for actor works. This led to multiple rounds of communication and negotiation between AFTRA and SAG, which culminated in the new initial agreement this month. Also, centralizing operations will make it easier for production companies to work with union members, providing single contracts to be approved by a single union, rather than two separate contracts for both unions.

Both organizations have been able to negotiate in recent years without strike. In fact, the most recent strike involving SAG was in 2000 when both unions pulled its members from commercials over a dispute involving residuals paid to performers for each broadcast of a commercial.

SAG and AFTRA most famously struck in 1980, which included a boycott of the Emmy awards. That year, only one of the nominees showed up: Powers Boothe, who had played Jim Jones in the television movie "Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones." In his acceptance speech, Boothe famously said "This may be the bravest moment of my career, or the dumbest."

SAG is set to review and possibly vote on the merger at the end of the month, with AFTRA immediately following, according to The Wrap. It's not clear when the new organization will be formed, if both sides agree.