Leaders of the Screen Actors Guild publicly declared war on a fellow actors’ union at a Monday rally here, increasing the likelihood of new labor strife in an entertainment industry still recovering from a writers’ strike that ended just four months ago, the New York Times reports.

Standing outside the union’s Wilshire Boulevard headquarters, Alan Rosenberg, president of the 120,000-member guild, urged supporters to reject a tentative deal reached last month between the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and Hollywood’s production companies.

“We are engaged in the battle of our lives,” Mr. Rosenberg told a group that appeared to number several hundred and included the actors Ed Asner, Keith Carradine, Justine Bateman and Joely Fisher. “It is essential,” he added, “that we vote down that Aftra deal.”

The crowd responded to the speeches with chants of “Vote No!” and bristled with signs opposing the federation’s contract.

About 40,000 of the federation’s approximately 70,000 members also belong to the actors’ guild. And Aftra’s Los Angeles office resides in the same building as SAG’s headquarters.

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