AMPTP, SAG No Closer to Agreement

LOS ANGELES, May 1: While
negotiations for a new Screen Actors Guild (SAG) contract are due to wrap
tomorrow, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) has
said that the two parties “are not yet close to an agreement.”

Discussions were set to
continue today, the AMPTP said on its website. In a statement issued yesterday,
the organization noted: “Although both parties have spent considerable time in
the negotiating room, we are not yet close to an agreement.”

AMPTP says that SAG
initially rejected the framework for new media that was established through the
Directors Guild, Writers Guild and the American Federation of Television and
Radio Artists’ Network Code negotiations. The producers maintain that “there is
no valid reason to upend the new media framework that has already been accepted
by writers, directors and AFTRA Network Code.”

The AMPTP statement
continued: “Last week, SAG indicated that it would be willing to live within
the existing new media framework—but only with more than 70 changes to
the framework, some of which would go a long way toward making the framework
itself unworkable.”

The producers say that SAG
has only conceded to accept a modified new-media deal if AMPTP addresses its
demand in traditional media. The AMPTP says, “Unfortunately, these
demands—including a doubling of the existing DVD formula and huge
increases in compensation and benefits—would result in enormous cost
increases that we are not willing to accept.”

The statement continues:
“We cannot responsibly accept the unprecedented, double-digit increases in DVD
residuals and conditions being sought by SAG, or wage hikes that in some cases
reach 200 percent. As a result, we have made little progress in narrowing the
significant differences with SAG on these critical traditional media issues.”

In a letter to its
members, SAG responded to the AMPTP statement, noting: “the AMPTP knows we did
not state that they had to agree to all of our non-new media proposals. We
expect the AMPTP to negotiate in good faith and we will do the same.
We
stand by our research and the information we provided you in our Contract 2008
Reports. We are not surprised that the employers dispute the economic hardships
actors are facing. You know better. We will not negotiate this contract in the
press. Instead, we are focused on reaching a fair contract that addresses your
needs as professional actors. 
We will continue to update you regularly.”

Meanwhile, AFTRA is due to
start its AMPTP discussions on Monday.

—By Mansha Daswani