SAG-AFTRA has responded to the newest provide from the studios and can meet once more for extra negotiations with the AMPTP Friday, the guild introduced in a press release to members.
“Today, we passed a comprehensive counter across the table to the CEOs, and while talks for the day have ended, our committee just completed working internally tonight. We are scheduled to meet across the table again tomorrow,” the guild stated.
After a break during which the AMPTP suspended talks, the studios made its new provide on Tuesday, October 24. The strike has now stretched on for 105 days.
The studios’ newest provide was an enchancment on the bonus construction designed to reward actors showing on essentially the most profitable streaming collection, however it didn’t provide a lower of total streaming income because the guild has been demanding, sources instructed IndieWire. A studio-side supply additionally says the studios have elevated its proportion enhance on wage minimums up from 5 p.c within the first 12 months to now be 7 p.c.
That new provide from the studios was, in keeping with one studio-side supply who spoke to IndieWire, “very generous” and would offer extra total compensation, however didn’t initially go over nice within the room with union negotiators. Nonetheless, talks are persevering with. Baby steps.
Late on Thursday after information that negotiations ended for the day, an open letter was signed by over 4,000 actors, together with many high-level stars, telling guild management “we have not come all this way not to cave now.”
“We have not gone without work, without pay, and walked picket lines for months just to give up on everything we’ve been fighting for. We cannot and will not accept a contract that fails to address the vital and existential problems that we all need fixed,” the letter reads.
The studio CEOs within the room this week, together with Disney’s Bob Iger, Netflix’s Ted Sarandos, Warner Bros. Discovery’s David Zaslav, and Universal’s Donna Langley, acknowledged that if a deal isn’t reached very quickly, will probably be very hard to get production back up and running earlier than the tip of the 12 months. That will result in some collection cancellations and more movies being delayed within 2024 or past. You can take that as a risk to hurry issues alongside or as a harsh actuality about how lengthy it takes logistically to get folks again to work.
The key sticking level in talks is SAG-AFTRA’s streaming revenue-sharing proposal. As initially proposed again in July, the guild would get a small lower of all streaming income generated. Earlier this month, the guild modified its proposal in order that actors would obtain compensation based mostly on subscribers and viewership. The union seen that as a serious concession, however the studios finally walked away from the desk and suspended talks. Sarandos known as it a “levy” on subscribers and a “bridge too far.”
In talking with IndieWire although, lead negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland known as these remarks “offensive” and felt the studios have been misrepresenting the guild’s proposal. SAG-AFTRA believes the brand new components would require roughly $.57 per subscriber per 12 months in added pay, which works out to about $500 million a 12 months. The studios say it should price nearer to $800 million. The present streaming residual components pays actors roughly $126 million a 12 months.
The bonus construction that the studios proposed to the guild, and which they’ve now improved upon, is modeled off what the writers agreed to final month, ending the strike and successful added residuals for the highest 20% of streaming reveals. But Crabtree-Ireland beforehand instructed IndieWire that doesn’t work for SAG-AFTRA members as a result of writers are compensated in a different way than actors, and it doesn’t assist the various background or smaller actors engaged on well-liked reveals that present worth for streamers however don’t rise to that higher crust.
The two sides are additionally break up over minimal salaries for actors. The guild is asking for 11 p.c raises within the first 12 months of the brand new contract (Variety reported that the guild in its newest response has come all the way down to 9%), however the studios beforehand provided 5 p.c, which is what the WGA and DGA agreed to. The new AMPTP provide upped that proportion, in keeping with a studio-side supply. While it’s unclear by how a lot or if the guild will discover that adequate, it breaks from the sample bargaining provided to the opposite guilds.
Other points nonetheless at stake for the actors are using AI, rules over self-taped auditions, and different enhancements and raises for background actors and stunt performers.
The return to the negotiating desk arrived this week after either side of the desk began feeling stress. A gaggle of A-list actors led by George Clooney proposed eliminating the cap on dues for the top-earning members. The hope is that it might assist bridge the hole between the guild and studios when it comes to the cash they’re searching for for members. But SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher final week defined in an Instagram video message that member dues aren’t the identical as an actor’s revenue, and the guild legally can’t use member dues to fund the healthcare and pension plans.
Talks initially meant for Wednesday have been rescheduled to a day in a while right this moment, the twenty sixth, to present the guild extra time to arrange its response. Crabtree-Ireland earlier than heading to the AMPTP workplaces appeared on the picket strains outdoors Paramount and instructed Deadline he was “cautiously optimistic” in regards to the route of talks.
