AMPTP, SAG “Far Apart” in Negotiations

LOS ANGELES, June 13: The
Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) and the Screen
Actors Guild (SAG) are still “far apart” in their negotiations for a new
contract, the Hollywood producers group said yesterday.

The two organizations
began negotiations on April 15, before breaking off for the AMPTP to begin
scheduled discussions with the American Federation of Television and Radio
Artists (AFTRA). That agreement was announced last month and has been sent to
AFTRA’s some 70,000 members for ratification.

The AMPTP says it is “frustrated
and discouraged” that SAG’s leadership believes a deal is unattainable before
the current contract ends June 30. “We hope that this statement does not signal
the intention of SAG's Hollywood leaders to bring our industry to a halt,” the
producers alliance said.

The AMPTP laid out three
reasons for the unsuccessful negotiations. “First, while we have made some
progress with SAG, we are still far apart on fundamental issues.” The alliance
also cited “the rallies, meetings and events to which SAG’s Hollywood
leadership has recently devoted considerable time and energy (often during
hours that are usually reserved for negotiations).” The AMPTP went on to call
these events “side shows” and “distractions which SAG’s Hollywood leaders
appear committed to perpetuating…. We hope that SAG will focus on making a deal
with us rather than diverting its energies to interfering with the affairs of a
fellow union.”

Second, the AMPTP says
that SAG continues to propose changes to the new-media framework established in
contracts with Hollywood’s writers, directors and with AFTRA. Some of these
changes, the AMPTP says, “would go a long way toward making the framework
itself unworkable. The producers’ position has been that there is no valid
reason to upend the new-media framework that has already been accepted during
four other separate negotiations this year.”

Lastly, the producers say,
SAG’s leadership is seeking increases in traditional media compensation “that
would result in enormous additional financial burdens.”

The AMPTP reasserted its
commitment to negotiating a fair deal before the June 30 deadline. The
producers added: “SAG’s inability to close this deal has already put the industry
into another de facto strike,
limiting the greenlighting of features and disrupting pilot production.
Unfortunately, SAG’s Hollywood leadership and its allies continue to express a
cavalier attitude about the consequences of a potential strike for below-the-line
workers, SAG’s own members and its sister guilds in particular and our economy
in general.”

—By Mansha Daswani