This week, SAG-AFTRA’s negotiating team sat down with AMPTP’s negotiating team. SAG-AFTRA has been on strike since July 14, and the negotiations have been going nowhere for months. Well, yesterday, negotiations were suspended. According to the AMPTP, they had to walk away after SAG made some proposals which producers simply hated. AMPTP got their statement out in a hurry, which you can read here. Then SAG-AFTRA responded:

On Wednesday night, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers declared that negotiations with SAG-AFTRA are suspended, given that the gap between the parties is “too great.”

“Negotiations between the AMPTP and SAG-AFTRA have been suspended after SAG-AFTRA presented its most recent proposal on October 11,” the trade association representing studios and streamers in negotiations said in a press release on Wednesday night. “After meaningful conversations, it is clear that the gap between the AMPTP and SAG-AFTRA is too great, and conversations are no longer moving us in a productive direction.”

Early Thursday morning, SAG-AFTRA shot back at the AMPTP, telling members that the studios walked away from talks with the union and accused them of using “bully tactics.” “[The studios] intentionally misrepresented to the press the cost of the above proposal – overstating it by 60 percent,” the message to union members said. “They have done the same with A.I., claiming to protect performer consent, but continuing to demand “consent” on the first day of employment for use of a performer’s digital replica for an entire cinematic universe (or any franchise project).”

The SAG-AFTRA message added, “The companies are using the same failed strategy they tried to inflict on the WGA – putting out misleading information in an attempt to fool our members into abandoning our solidarity and putting pressure on our negotiators. But, just like the writers, our members are smarter than that and will not be fooled.”

In its message, the AMPTP singled out the union’s proposal for casts to receive a cut of streaming platform revenue as “an untenable economic burden” that would cost more than $800 million per year. The trade association also referred to “numerous remaining open items” but did not explicitly state which ones those might be. When the two parties restarted negotiations on Oct. 2, they still had yet to come to terms on AI regulations and minimum wage rates, among other issues.

The development came after the fifth day of negotiations between the union and studios and streamers since SAG-AFTRA initially went on strike on July 14. During the renewed talks, which took place at SAG-AFTRA’s Los Angeles headquarters and which was attended by studio heads including Netflix’s Ted Sarandos, Disney’s Bob Iger, NBCUniversal’s Donna Langley and Warner Bros. Discovery’s David Zaslav, the union’s streaming revenue proposal remained a major sticking point, per sources.

[From THR]

Whoever operates SAG-AFTRA’s social media did a big thread on exactly what happened and the proposals and what was really said. I believe SAG’s version of events and I believe that AMPTP is attempting a “divide and conquer” strategy, trying to sow discontent among actors by claiming that their union is making absolutely outrageous proposals. The thing is, actors are in lockstep – 99.9% of SAG-AFTRA union members know what’s at stake, they understand how badly they’re being screwed over, and they’re terrified that AI will fundamentally change the industry for the worse. AMPTP is delaying the inevitable, which is that they’re simply going to have to give in to SAG’s proposals. But it’s going to take a while before AMPTP figures that out, so the strike will probably keep going until December. That’s my prediction.

🧵To Our Fellow #SagAftraMembers:

It is with profound disappointment that we report the industry CEOs have walked away from the bargaining table after refusing to counter our latest offer. (1/11) pic.twitter.com/nd2PfpDH4F

— SAG-AFTRA (@sagaftra) October 12, 2023

Photos courtesy of Backgrid and Cover Images.