Members of the Screen Actors Guild negotiating committee decided on Wednesday to encourage a strike authorization vote, a scheme expected to put an end to stalled contract negotiations with Hollywood studios.

After a prolonged meeting, the proposal was approved by a vote of 11 to 2 and is now due to be evaluated by the union’s national board for review. If the resolution passes this stage as well, it will eventually need the endorsement of 75 percent of the approximately 120,000 voting guild members. Although the negotiating committee may organize a membership vote without the national board’s authorization, it preferred to leave the final decision in the hands of the board’s members.

“A strike authorization vote of the membership is necessary to overcome the employers’ intransigence,” the resolution explained. However, it did not deny the fact that it needed “the strong and public support of the national board” so as to be one step closer to success.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers expressed its disapproval of SAG’s move, explaining in a statement that it was not the right moment for such a strike.

“Is this really the time for anyone associated with the entertainment business to be talking about going on strike? Not only is the business suffering from recent economic conditions, but if ever there was a time when Americans wanted the diversions of movies and television, it is now,” the statement read.

On the other hand, SAG said that such a move was essential in order to triumph over the employers’ inflexibility.

Although a strike authorization vote does not represent a vote on whether work comes to a standstill, it does offer union leaders influence and power with regard to the contract negotiations, which stalled in July after a final bid from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

Showbiz is on the threshold of yet another potential strike following the 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America work stoppage that caused the standstill of both film and television production. That strike, whose concerns had mainly been generated by Internet-related streaming, ended in February and lasted more than a dozen weeks, costing the Los Angeles area economy an estimated $2.5 billion.

The resolution issued by SAG comes as a result of recent talks between the union and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

SAG’s national negotiating committee sent a letter earlier this week to the AMPTP and major studio officials in which it insisted on resuming formal negotiations. SAG was principally referring to new media work and its implications.

However, the studios said that AMPTP’s offer in June was similar to the deals reached with writers and directors and that new negotiations were not seen as useful and practical in this case.

“It is unrealistic for SAG negotiators now to expect even better terms during this grim financial climate,” the AMPTP said in a statement released on Wednesday. “This is the harsh economic reality, and no strike will change that reality.”

The SAG’s national board, which includes over 70 members, is due to meet October 18. Furthermore, a mere majority is sufficient so as to approve the initiation of a strike vote.