The Screen Actors Guild board of directors rejected on Saturday the “last, best and final offer” released by Hollywood producers in order to establish a new contract.

 

However, the contract was rejected by 73 percent of SAG’s board members, spokeswoman Pamela Greenwalt announced in a statement. In addition, SAG called the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers’ request for the contract to last for three years instead of two, “regressive and damaging.”

 

Nonetheless, producers claim that the prolonged contract would start off when it is authorized, instead of when the previous one reached its expiration date, which would mean that SAG would not be able to join the writers’ and directors’ guilds in an attempt to boost their negotiating power when their contracts end in 2011.

 

A statement issued by the producers alliance said the offer was well-built and reasonable and that the association had always tried to obtain a three-year-agreement, just as it had negotiated with other guilds and unions.

 

“We simply cannot offer SAG a better deal than the rest of the industry achieved under far better economic conditions than those now confronting our industry,” the statement read.

 

Nevertheless, AMPTP spokesman Jesse Hiestand would not offer further information with regard to the matter. Moreover, The Associated Press reported that Pamela Greenwalt refused to give details when she was asked what the next step would be.

 

SAG is the final holdout amid numerous unions that have agreed to long-term contracts. The guild has disapproved of the producers’ previous offer, explaining it failed to assure guild coverage in productions made for the Internet among other issues.