Hollywood Producers Rebuff SAG Offer

LOS ANGELES, September 30:
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) has rejected
the Screen Actors Guild’s request to resume negotiations, citing the union’s
refusal to budge on certain “threshold” issues.

The request to resume
negotiations was made yesterday in a letter to J. Nicholas Counter III, the
AMPTP’s president, Peter Chernin, the president and COO of News Corp., and
Robert Iger, the president and CEO of The Walt Disney Company, from SAG chief
Alan Rosenberg and chief negotiator Doug Allen. The letter said that the
AMPTP’s current offer would be rejected by SAG’s members.

“It is our fervent hope
that this news will encourage you and your colleagues to reengage in formal
bargaining, with the exchange of proposals and compromise by both sides
necessary to reach an agreement.”

The “threshold” issues
cited by SAG are coverage for all new-media productions (including those below
$15,000/minute) and residuals for made-for-new-media productions re-used on new
media.

“We are prepared to meet
formally and continuously until we reach agreement,” the SAG letter continues.
“We owe it to our constituencies and the thousands of others in this industry
that depend on a productive, stable and uninterrupted relationship between
Screen Actors Guild and the networks and studios.”

The letter concludes: “The
alternative to reaching an agreement as soon as possible is unnecessary and
destructive uncertainty. If your intransigence continues, however, our choices
become harder and fewer. We would prefer the more complicated and productive
choices that compromise will make necessary. But we can’t make those choices
that lead to agreement working alone.”

In his response, Counter
cited the other contracts signed with Directors Guild of America, the Writers
Guild of America and AFTRA. “Our final offer memorializes a set of compromises,
including in the area of new media, worked out with other guilds and unions and
particularly addresses actor-specific issues raised during the Screen Actors
Guild negotiations. We do not believe that it would be productive to resume
negotiations at this time given SAG’s continued insistence on terms which the
companies have repeatedly rejected.”

The AMPTP response
continues: “In light of the unprecedented economic difficulties facing our
industry and the nation, the companies continue to hope that the Guild’s
leadership will recognize the five major labor agreements that have already
been concluded this year and will accept our final offer while it remains on
the table.”

—By Mansha Daswani