- Leslie Simmons, The Hollywood Reporter

LOS ANGELES The presidential candidates aren't the only ones looking for a debate.

On Monday, Screen Actors Guild president Alan Rosenberg, citing the spread of misinformation, proposed that SAG and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists hold an official debate on the issues involving AFTRA's newly brokered prime-time TV contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers.

AFTRA declined the invite, calling it "disingenuous" and urging SAG to concentrate on its own negotiations.

AFTRA and SAG have been locking horns over the latter's tentative agreement with the AMPTP, which was reached May 28.

An actors strike could cripple the television and film industries and have broad ramifications for advertisers.

Prior to negotiations with the studios, AFTRA suspended its joint bargaining agreement with SAG to negotiate its own prime-time TV contract. Since then, it's been a war of words between the two performers' unions, which kicked up a notch after AFTRA brokered its deal with the AMPTP.

AFTRA's national board has voted to send the new contract to members for ratification and expects the results by July 7.

SAG and AFTRA share 44,000 members, and SAG has been urging those members to vote down the AFTRA contract. SAG's national executive committee voted 13-10 to launch a campaign -- which is estimated to cost $75,000-150,000 -- against the AFTRA contract. SAG has held a rally and sent letters to members urging a no vote on the deal.

AFTRA in the meantime has started its own campaign. On Monday, it sent members a detailed e-mail about its deal.

For example, SAG claims that AFTRA achieved no significant gains for middle-class actors and can get better.

But AFTRA counters that it closed a deal that included a 10 percent increase in pay for all categories, a 13 percent increase in major role minimums and restored health and retirement coverage for warmup performers that it says was lost when it synchronized its prime time contract with SAG's TV agreement in 2005. Rosenberg proposed the debate in a letter hand-delivered to AFTRA's Los Angeles office and addressed to the union's president Roberta Reardon. He said the point of the debate would be to clear up conflicting information SAG and AFTRA members are receiving about the tentative agreement and its impact on SAG's current negotiations with the AMPTP.

Rosenberg's proposal comes on the heels of a statement issued Thursday by the AMPTP that took a jab at the public rallies and town hall meetings the union has held since negotiations began.

The AMPTP said the "sideshows" are distractions from the talks and often take place at times when both sides should be negotiating.

SAG's 13-member negotiating committee issued a statement Friday indicating that it is committed to the bargaining process. The message cited six priorities it was focusing on, including significant increases for middle-class actors, increases in pension and health contributions, increase in DVD residuals, protections from product integration, preserving force majeure protections and issues regarding new media, including clip consent, jurisdiction over new-media productions and residuals for all original new-media productions.