The two actor unions are at odds over the Screen Actors Guild's negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers which represents the studios. The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists has reached an agreement with AMPTP and its members are to vote on the deal. The vote count will end on July 8.

Meanwhile, SAG has made an unprecedented request that members who are also in the AFTRA to vote against the deal, in order to allow for more pressure on the studios during negotiations. The American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), which has negotiated jointly with the guild over the past 27 years, decided to break the alliance in late March and negotiate on its own the new contract. AFTRA shares more than half of its 70,000 members with SAG.

The Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists said they reached a tentative three-year contract deal in late May. The deal, which provides higher revenues for downloaded content and residual payments for ad-supported streams and clips, puts a great deal of pressure on SAG if approved by members.

Although the situation is tense, Screen Actors Guild President Alan Rosenberg said that there weren’t discussions regarding a strike. The issue has however divided actors within both unions. For example, Tom Hanks supports AFTRA’s deal Jack Nicholson backs SAG.

A few days ago, George Clooney made an appeal to the two largest actor unions at Hollywood to start working together for the good of its members. Clooney suggested that the two unions should stop fighting against each other and should make a panel of 10 well paid actors that the studios don’t usually refuse, which should annually represent the actor’s interests in front of the film companies.