Hollywood's major actors union has refuted news reports that it has suspended plans for a strike authorization vote among its 120,000 members in case of failed labor contract talks with movie studios.

"The Screen Actors Guild (SAG) has taken no action to suspend the national board of directors' Oct. 19 resolution regarding the strike authorization referendum," the union said in a statement released late Thursday.

Doug Allen, the union's national executive director, has proposed that the planned vote be suspended and management's offer be put to the membership, but his proposal has not yet been approved by the guild's board.

Allen's proposal includes seeking another meeting with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents major Hollywood studios and television networks, to determine whether the entertainment industry is willing to improve their last offer.

Members of the SAG, which is considered the most powerful union in Hollywood, have been working without a contract since June 30 last year, when their previous three-year contract expired.

(Xinhua News Agency January 24, 2009)