George Clooney Urges Screen Actors Guild to Negotiate and Avoid Another Strike

George Clooney doesn’t want another strike that will cripple Hollywood. He wants to avoid the screen actors strike and asks the Screen Actors Guild to negotiate before the contract ends by June 30.

The writers strike is finally over after three months of negotiations. Television audiences and production crews saw there paycheck take a hit with no shows being made. George Clooney doesn’t want the same thing to happen to Hollywood actors. The Screen Actors Guild’s (SAG) contract with Hollywood ends June 30, 2008 and there has been no negotiations or agreements as of yet. Clooney wants the SAG to avoid a walkout by starting talks early with the studios and producers. He is joined by Oscar winners Robert De Niro, Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep. They have taken ads in Variety and the Hollywood Reporter urging SAG to negotiate with Hollywood as soon as possible and come to agreement before the deadline. During the last week’s Oscar-nominee luncheon, Clooney voiced concerns that if SAG delays talks, it will weaken the actors’ position. Clooney spoke to the Variety magazine about a possible strike:

I think there's a lot of strike fatigue, and I think you actually start losing negotiating power…I would hope we in the Screen Actors Guild get back to the table."

SAG national executive director Doug Allen said on Wednesday the union, which represents about 120,000 actors, would begin talks with studios "at a time that will most benefit our members." The last SAG strike lasted three months in 1980. In 2000, they had another strike by the actors in commercials which lasted for six months. During that time, both Tom Hanks and George Clooney donated to the SAG Foundation’s relief fund. I personally hope this call from Clooney and others will avert another strike.