SAG Evaluates AMPTP Last-Minute Offer

LOS ANGELES, July 1: As
its contract expired yesterday, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) received the
“final offer” from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers
(AMPTP), which maintains that the industry is already in a “de facto strike,
with film production virtually shut down and television production now
seriously threatened.”

SAG and AMPTP have been
negotiating for the last 42 days for a new contract. SAG has received a 43-page
offer from the producers that it says is “generally consistent” with a contract
already accepted by the leadership of the American Federation of Television and
Radio Artists (AFTRA).

AFTRA’s members are in the
process of voting on the deal, with the results expected to be announced next
week. SAG mounted an extensive campaign to encourage AFTRA’s members to reject
the deal, enlisting the support of Hollywood heavyweights like Jack Nicholson.

SAG says it is “reviewing
the complex package and will prepare a response to management once that analysis
is complete.” SAG and the AMPTP are due to meet again this afternoon. In a
statement issued late yesterday, Doug Allen, SAG’s national executive director
and chief negotiator, said that an initial evaluation of the offer found that
it “does not appear to address some key issues important to actors. For
example, the impact of foregoing residuals for all made-for-new-media
productions is incalculable and would mean the beginning of the end of
residuals.”

In the interim, SAG says
that its members should report to work “past the expiration date” until further
notice.

The AMPTP says its final
offer—“an effort to put everyone back to work”—provides more than
$250 million in additional compensation to SAG members, with “significant
economic gains and groundbreaking new-media rights for all performers.”

The offer is consistent
with deals already inked with AFTRA, the Directors Guild of America and the
Writers Guild of America. The AMPTP statement continues: “Our offer addresses
issues that SAG identified as being of utmost concern to its members, including
tailoring our new-media framework for SAG in areas such as feature films and
significant gains for working actors.”

It concludes: “In short,
our final offer to SAG represents a final hope for avoiding further work
stoppages and getting everyone back to work. That is our goal, and we hope it
is shared by the members of SAG.”

The AMPTP says an actors’
strike would cost SAG members $2.5 million every day in wages, while the other
guilds would lose $13.5 million a day, and the California economy would lose
$23 million daily.

—By Mansha Daswani