ACTORS UNIONS AGREE ON NEGOTIATING STRATEGY

Members of the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists have agreed to deemphasize payments for new media and focus instead on bread-and-butter issues like increases in employer contributions to their health-and-welfare plans and raises in basic pay scales when they begin negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers beginning September 27, published reports said today (Monday). In a joint statement, the two unions announced that SAG President Ken Howard and AFTRA National President Roberta Reardon will co-chair the negotiations.