The Screen Actors Guild wants to divide itself again.

Here's a link to Nikki Finke's DEADLINE HOLLYWOOD DAILY, where she mentions certain actors in the Screen Actors Guild (notably Amy Brenneman, who most recently appeared shilling for DIY Dove soap commercials on Sunday's Academy Awards) supporting a "qualified voting" petition, which will deny members who don't work a certain number of days per year as either a principal actor, day player or background (there are other qualfications) the right to vote on union contractual matters:

http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/petition-drive-leaders-met-with-sag/

The "qualified" mentality isn't anything new with SAG. 

I became a member in early 1992, having received a line of dialogue while working as background on Richard Attenborough's CHAPLIN.  [My period of active work as a SAG member (both as background actor and stand-in) was from 1992 to the spring of 1997.  Since then, I've kept my membership card and have voted on occasion in either board elections or the annual SAG Awards.]

By the summer of 1992, SAG took over jurisdiction for union background actors after the folding of the old Screen Extras Guild. 

In the membership meetings I attended, I remember that various factions of the Guild weren't always happy with each other.  And certainly I remember that background actors weren't always highly regarded by some "real" actors (one day player type moaned out loud at a mid-90s meeting about "the lunacy of the extras") and, notably, former SAG President Richard Masur.

And, unfortunately, background actors (who suffer periods when there's very little work to go around) have supported their own version of the "qualified" mania: wanting to repeal the three-SAG-background-voucher system which makes nonunion backgrounders eligible to join the Guild.

Given the upcoming challenges of renegotiating with the AMPTP, it's very sad that certain members of the Guild want to behave in an incredibly stupid, poisonously divisive manner when unity--and potential support from all the rank-and-file should a strike occur--is needed at this time.

Tags: Screen Actors Guild, Screen Extras Guild, Richard Masur, AMPTP, background actors, SAG petition for qualified voting