Today I’m the guest on Drivetime With Dave Fanning, a popular Irish radio show, discussing the looming Screen Actors Guild strike.  The segment airs in a just a few minutes West Coast time, and hopefully will be archived.

I have mixed emotions about the strike: I think the actors’ demands are reasonable, but I don’t think California can weather another strike. The film industry provides jobs for so many, and the income from a working production town is felt everywhere: Service professionals, shops, restaurants, schools which rely on families to help supplement the budgets with fundraisers…

In three years, the unions will be synchronized for a strike, so I am of the mind–shared by many working actors, including over 130 celebrity names–to hold off until then and keep working:

We support our union and we support the issues we’re fighting for, but we do not believe in all good conscience that now is the time to be putting people out of work. None of our friends in the other unions are truly happy with the deals they made in their negotiations. Three years from now all the union contracts will be up again at roughly the same time. At that point if we plan and work together with our sister unions we will have incredible leverage.

Here’s what the producers are offering  and here’s an analysis from the same guy, attorney Jonathan Handel. And this is my opinion:

Meal penalties–Keep ‘em; feed people on time!

DVD residuals: The raise goes into pension and health fund: Keep it.

Force majeure: Keep it.

Product Integration: No actor should have to verbally endorse a product on screen, unless there’s money coming to him/her. Loose it.

Mileage reimbursement: Raise it to what the IRS says is acceptable.

New media re-use residuals: Pay ‘em.

Well, technically I support all the points a vocal faction within SAG feels are worth striking over. But I feel there are points that can be negotiated upon and points that can be tabled for three years during which time all film labor can come together and present a strong front in the best interest of all members.

This town needs to be kept working, and by extension so does the global film industry, which relies on Screen Actors Guild members, from the huge box office draws to the background and character actors, who create the rich tapestry of  the movies.