(Updates with quotes from SAG statement; adds background)
LOS ANGELES (AFP)--The guild representing Hollywood television and movie actors on Saturday said it is asking its members for a strike authorization vote after talks for a new contract failed.
Both sides fear a repeat of the 100-day writer's strike between November 2007 and February 2008, which resulted in more than $2 billion in industry losses.
Much of Hollywood has been in limbo, with scores of productions paralyzed since the Screen Actor's Guild and the Hollywood producers have been without a contract since late June. Negotiations ground to a halt in July, and began again only in November.
The first round of talks in four months between representatives of the SAG and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers floundered early Saturday after two marathon sessions in the presence of federal mediator Juan Carlos Gonzalez.
"Management continues to insist on terms we cannot responsibly accept on behalf of our members," SAG said in a statement.
"We will now launch a full-scale education campaign in support of a strike authorization referendum. We will further inform our members about the core, critical issues unique to actors that remain in dispute."
The guild remains "committed to avoiding a strike, but now more than ever we cannot allow our employers to experiment with our careers," the statement said.
The SAG statement didn't explicitly mention the disagreements, but U.S. media reports that a key stumbling block is determining how much actors deserve to be paid as movies are increasingly distributed through new media outlets like the Internet and mobile devices like cell phones.
The Writer's Guild of America "has already learned that the new media terms they agreed to with the AMPTP" in their February contract "are not being honored," the SAG statement said. "We cannot allow our employers to undermine the futures of our members and their families."
A strike authorization vote could take more than a month, and needs 75% approval to pass.
The SAG statement said that no timeline "has been set for the mailing or return of the strike authorization ballots."
The vote is being called ahead of two of the industry's most important ceremonies, the Golden Globes in January and the Oscars in February.
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 22, 2008 15:21 ET (20:21 GMT)

Publié le 22 novembre 2008 Copyright © 2008 Dowjones