Major studios suspend talks with SAG-AFTRA
The ongoing actor’s strikes officiated by the Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) will likely continue for the foreseeable future after their negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) reached a standstill.
According to SAG-AFTRA, the AMPTP had engaged in “bully tactics” before simply walking away from the bargaining table after refusing to offer a counter to the union’s recent demands. SAG-AFTRA expressed “profound disappointment” at the studios’ behaviour and called on their members to express solidarity on the picket lines.
A major point of contention during the talks was the union’s request to share in streaming revenue, which the AMPTP baulked at, saying it would cost them $800 million annually. SAG-AFTRA claims this is an exaggeration and that the proposal would only cost streaming giants 57 cents per subscriber per year.
“We have negotiated with them in good faith, despite the fact that last week they presented an offer that was, shockingly, worth less than they proposed before the strike began,” SAG-AFTRA told the membership in an official statement.
Continuing, they listed the terms being denied by AMPTP. “These companies refuse to protect performers from being replaced by AI, they refuse to increase your wages to keep up with inflation, and they refuse to share a tiny portion of the immense revenue YOUR work generates for them.”
The AMPTP, in turn, criticised the union for refusing to make any counters of changes to their original streaming offer, which they said would ultimately result in an “untenable economic burden”. According to SAG-AFTRA, however, this is an attempt to mislead and undermine support for the actors.
“The companies are using the same failed strategy they tried to inflict on the WGA [Writers Guild of America] – putting out misleading information to fool our members into abandoning our solidarity and putting pressure on our negotiators,” the union said. “But, just like the writers, our members are smarter than that and will not be fooled.”
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