AMPTP, SAG Talks Suspended

LOS ANGELES, May 7: The
Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) has suspended
contract negotiations with the Screen Actors Guild (SAG), citing the union’s
“unreasonable demands.”

On Friday, the two
organizations agreed to extend negotiations “as long as the parties were making
progress.” The AMPTP said late yesterday: “We therefore regret to report that
insufficient progress has been made to extend negotiations for a third time.
Indeed, the negotiations were thrust into reverse by SAG’s persistent refusal
to acknowledge that the three deals already struck with the writers, directors
and AFTRA reflect the economic realities faced by everyone in our industry,
including actors.”

AMPTP notes that the
biggest hurdles in the negotiations include DVD residuals, streaming content,
original new-media programming and the new-media exploitation of clips and
library material. “Under these circumstances, with SAG’s continued adherence to
unreasonable demands in both new and traditional media, continuing negotiations
at this time does not make sense.”

The AMPTP is scheduled to
start negotiations with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists
(AFTRA) today. The producers alliance says it has “offered to resume negotiations
with SAG at a future date.”

The AMPTP statement
continues: “Even though this round of negotiations has ended without an
agreement, we hope that these three weeks of work have helped lay the
groundwork for an agreement that can eventually be reached prior to the June
30, 2008, expiration of the current SAG-AMPTP contract.”

SAG, meanwhile, says it
urged the AMPTP to continue talks. The union’s national president, Alan
Rosenberg, said, "It is unfortunate and deeply troubling that the AMPTP
would suspend our negotiations at this critical juncture. We have modified our
proposals over the last three weeks in effort to bargain a fair contract for
our members. We are committed to preserving rights that have been in place for
decades and not giving the studios the right to use excerpts of our work in new
media without our consent and negotiation. Our negotiating team is prepared to
work around the clock for as long as it takes to get a fair deal. We want to
keep the town working."

SAG maintains that it has
“negotiated in good faith and modified many of its proposals to the AMPTP. To
date, the AMPTP has offered only a few modifications to its new media proposal,
which was submitted to SAG in three documents containing 36 provisions that
differed from the deals agreed to with the WGA and DGA.”

SAG maintains that the
producers offered a proposal that was “substantially” different from the ones
signed by the directors’ and writers’ guilds. “Management's clip demand would
gut existing provisions regarding actors' consent to use of their clips and
would allow studios and networks to use or sell clips—going forward and
from their libraries—in any way they choose and without consent.”

—By Mansha Daswani