The Screen Actors Guild and the Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers have agreed to begin negotiating new contracts nine months in advance of their expiration in June 2011. The two unions say that they will work together to bargain the contracts,and that one of their main goals is to make the bargaining less contentious than in years past. Neither union has released what it is asking for from the studios, but the negotiations are expected to focus on minimum pay and health and pension costs for union members. The tone of the negotiations is very different than two years ago, when the two unions were at war with one another and thee studios, and some feared an actors strike like the one by the writers. Bargaining will begin on September 27.
See "Hollywood talks expected to be less acrimonious this time", Richard Verrier, Los Angeles Times, September 14, 2010