SAG, WGA ELECTIONS KEY WINNERS WILL HAVE LEAD ROLES IN NEGOTIATING CONTRACTS WITH PRODUCERS.

Byline: Greg Hernandez Staff Writer

Within days of each other next week, the Screen Actors Guild and the Writers Guild of America West will both complete high-stakes elections as critical negotiations with producers over a new labor contract are still up in the air.

WGA members, currently working without a contract, are voting to elect a president, vice president and board of directors with results to be made public Tuesday. SAG, working under a one-year contract extension, will count ballots Thursday for the election of its influential Hollywood board.

``I think next week will be critical for the industry,'' observed Arnold Peter, chairman of the Los Angeles-based entertainment practice Lord, Bissell & Brook. ``Depending on the results of the elections, negotiations could take a turn.''

Right now, both the WGA and SAG are watching the contract talks between the Directors Guild of America and the Association of Motion Picture and Television Producers, whose outcomes are certain to affect the upcoming negotiations with the actors and writers. Common issues among the three unions are revenue formulas for DVDs and jurisdiction over reality programming.

``If the Directors Guild agrees to a deal with the AMPTP that other unions can go into,'' Peter said, ``will the election results have an impact on the fact that everyone is relying on the DGA to strike a deal with the studios?''

In the WGA race, incumbent Daniel Petrie Jr. is facing off against challenger Eric Hughes in a campaign that will serve as a mandate for future contract talks with the AMPTP.

For Hughes, the election represents a chance to win the job he first ran for a year ago, when he was defeated by then-incumbent Victoria Riskin.

Riskin was forced to step down in January after it was determined that she had not been eligible to run. Charles Holland replaced Riskin but soon resigned as well - after possible embellishments on his military and college resumes were made public. Petrie, who had previously served as WGA president from 1997 to 1999, then stepped into the job.

``There's no question that the events earlier this year left our guild, in the eyes of many, weakened,'' Petrie wrote in his candidate's statement. ``I want our guild to be stronger again. More than that, I want our guild to become stronger than it's ever been.''

Hughes has been an outspoken critic of Petrie and the contract talks that stalled last spring and have yet to resume.

``We have no contract, no plans to strike, and apparently no strategy to obtain a better contract,'' Hughes stated. ``As president, I will put together a team of experienced writers, negotiators and lawyers to quickly develop a comprehensive and effective approach to the now-stalled contract negotiations. We cannot afford to sit back and do nothing, as it seems we have done since May.''

But Petrie defended the WGA's approach.

``The AMPTP offered us a deal that was unacceptable on every level, and we didn't accept it,'' he wrote to guild members. ``At the same time, we didn't go on strike, which, we believe, at least some of the AMPTP companies hoped we would do so they could leave us hanging out there as a warning to the DGA and SAG.''

In addition to electing a president, the membership is choosing a vice president - incumbent Carl Gottlieb versus Dennis Feldman - and voting in eight members of the board of directors from a field of 18 candidates.

For SAG, there are 35 open seats on its Hollywood board with the top-13 vote-getters also getting seats on the union's national board, which has clout.

The struggle for control is divided between two main groups that have each fielded a slate of candidates: Restore Respect, which is supported by SAG President Melissa Gilbert and Secretary-Treasurer James Cromwell and whose members make up a majority of the national board, and MemberShip First, an outspoken and influential group that has control of the Hollywood board and wants control of the national board as well.

Among the MembershipFirst candidates are some of the highest-profile critics of SAG Chief Executive Officer Bob Pisano. They include Valerie Harper, whom Gilbert defeated for the SAG presidency in 2002, and Kent McCord, who lost to Gilbert in 2004. Former SAG President William Daniels and Frances Fisher are also on that slate.

MembershipFirst charges that SAG's current leaders fail to provide members with even-handed discussions of issues but have instead used such communications tools as the official SAG magazine, official SAG mailings and official SAG e-mail ``to relentlessly attack anyone with an opposing or alternative viewpoint,'' as the group words it in a printed statement.

``In spite of their attempts to hide information from the membership, in spite of inundating members on how to vote, and in spite of the vitriolic attacks against political opponents, SAG's leadership has lost on practically every issue.''

Among the referendums MembershipFirst has worked against was the narrowly defeated vote to consolidate SAG with the American Federation of Radio and Television Artists or AFTRA and a failed dues-increase proposal.

Restore Respect portrays its rivals as reckless negotiators who have worked to defeat initiatives for their own political reasons rather than for the good of the union.

``Saying no to every positive and progressive initiative that the leadership of this union has brought forward stagnation,'' Restore Respect states on its Web site. ``There is a small group of people who will, for political gain, tell you to vote against anything put forward by SAG. But there is more to leadership than saying no.''

The Restore Respect slate includes first-time candidate Stephen Collins, star of the long-running WB series ``7th Heaven,'' and such well-known performers as Loretta Swit, Tess Harper, Gabrielle Carteris, Barbara Bosson, Kevin Kilner, Ken Howard, Robert Pine and Rene Auberjonois.

``We will carry out our duties as board members with the utmost integrity, with the interests of the membership the highest priority,'' they wrote in a joint statement.

Greg Hernandez, [phone]

greg.hernandez(at)dailynews.com