The head of the Screen Actors Guild doesn't want to hear the s-word as a deadline for contract expiration looms. "We have taken no steps to initiate a strike authorization vote by the members of Screen Actors Guild," Union President Alan Rosenberg said in a statement Sunday. "Any talk about a strike or a management lockout at this point is simply a distraction." The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers has taken out an advertisement in trade publications calling a strike "harmful and unnecessary." Citing $2.8 billion in lost wages, the ad says "We've completed four equitable and forward-thinking labor agreements. Let's get the fifth done."
See "SAG president says he doesn't want to hear strike talk as actors contract nears expiration", Associated Press, Minneapolis Star Tribune, June 29, 2008