What is Screen Actors Guild?
{{Infobox Union | name = Screen Actors Guild | country = [[United States]] | affiliation = [[Associated Actors and Artistes of America|AAAA]] ([[AFL-CIO]]), FIA | members = 139,200 | image = | founded = 1933 | dissolved_date = 2012 | dissolved_status = Merged with [[American Federation of Television and Radio Artists]] | office = [[Hollywood, Los Angeles, California]] | people = [[Ken Howard]], President<br />David White, National Executive Director <br /> [[Amy Aquino]], Secretary-Treasurer<br />[[Anne-Marie Johnson]], 1st Vice President<br />Mike Hodge, 2nd Vice President<br />David Hartley Margolin, 3rd Vice President | website = [http://www.sag.org/ www.sag.org] }} The '''Screen Actors Guild''' ('''SAG''') is an American [[trade union|labor union]] representing over 200,000 [[Movie|film]] and [[television]] [[actor|principal performers]] and [[extra (actor)|background performers]] worldwide. According to SAG's Mission Statement, the Guild was created to [[Negotiation|negotiate]] and enforce reasonable [[salary|salaries]], benefits, and working conditions for its performers; collect compensation for exploitation of recorded performances by its members, and provide protection against unauthorized use of those performances; and preserve and expand work opportunities for its members.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sag.org/about-us/mission-statement| title=Mission Statement|work=SAG Official Website}}</ref> The Guild was founded in 1933 in an effort to end [[exploitation]] of actors in [[Hollywood]] who were being forced into oppressive multi-year [[contract]]s with the major [[movie studio]]s that did not include restrictions on work hours or minimum rest periods. They often had clauses that automatically renewed at the studios' discretion. These contracts were notorious for allowing the studios to dictate the public and private lives of the performers who signed them, and most did not have provisions to allow the performer to end the deal.<ref>London Academy of M