The Performers Alliance: Conflict and change within the Screen Actors Guild
This paper takes an historical critical research perspective on rapid change within one of the highest profile unions in the world, the Screen Actors Guild and in particular the emergence of a political force that identified itself as The Performers Alliance. The author was a member of the National Board of Directors of the Screen Actors Guild; Parallels were found in the development of SAG through various stages of its history. Rhetorical analysis sheds light on the development of the Guild as a social movement and of The Performers Alliance as a dissident movement within the union itself. An argument is made that the Performers Alliance may be a successful social movement within the larger format of the Screen Actors Guild; Questions arise as to whether unions will survive, how the nature of the working union member may evolve and shifts in the nature of the employer-employee relationship itself.
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