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SAG-AFTRA president slams studios for halting labor contract talks
The Industry Oct 13, 2023
Fran Drescher. | Photo courtesy of Gage Skidmore/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 2.0)
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SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher Friday slammed the major Hollywood studios for suspending contract talks, two days after negotiations broke down in the ongoing labor standoff.
Appearing on NBC’s Friday Show to give her perspective on the now-stalled negotiations between the actors union and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, Drescher said the breakdown “really came as a shock to me.”
“What does that exactly mean and why would you walk away from the table?” she said. “It’s not like we’re asking for anything that’s so outrageous. It’s so wrong. And it’s so unfair that they walked out of the meeting, and so disrespectful.”
The AMPTP, which represents the studios, issued a statement Wednesday saying negotiations were “suspended after SAG-AFTRA presented its most recent proposal on October 11. After meaningful conversations, it is clear that the gap between the AMPTP and SAG-AFTRA is too great, and conversations are no longer moving us in a productive direction.”
The two sides met five times since Oct. 2, their first talks since the SAG-AFTRA strike began July 14, including on Wednesday.
“We have negotiated with them in good faith, despite the fact that last week they presented an offer that was, shockingly, worth less than they proposed before the strike began,” according to a statement by SAG-AFTRA Wednesday.
The union said studio CEOs “walked away from the bargaining table after refusing to counter our latest offer.”
SAG-AFTRA demands include general wage increases, protections against the use of actor images through artificial intelligence, boosts in compensation for successful streaming programs and improvements in health and retirement benefits.
In its Wednesday statement, the union contended that the studios “refuse to protect performers from being replaced by AI, they refuse to increase your wages to keep up with inflation and they refuse to share a tiny portion of the immense revenue your work generates for them.”
“We have made big meaningful counters on our end, including completely transforming our revenue share proposal, which would cost the companies less than 57 cents per subscriber each year. They have rejected our proposals and refused to counter.”
On Thursday, Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, who has been participating in the talks along with other major studios heads, said during a Bloomberg conference that the negotiations disintegrated over a union proposal to add a “levy” on every streaming service subscriber.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Sarandos told conference attendees that the union rejected a “success-based bonus” revenue model similar to the one recently accepted by the Writers Guild of America union, but which was far more costly.
“That was rejected and the counter was this levy on every subscriber and prior to that was a levy on all revenue, where basically the union will take a certain amount of money for every subscriber to a service,” Sarandos said, according to THR.
“That issue we got resolved with the writers was not only accepted in the deal but ratified by a 99 percent vote of the Writers Guild. So I know that these guilds are not created equal and they all have different needs and more bespoke needs, but like I said, that is one that worked that rewarded success, which we agreed with,” according to Sarandos via THR. “But a levy on top of our revenue or per subscriber, with no insight into the revenue per subscriber or anything, we just felt like a bridge too far to add this deep into the negotiation.”
The Writers Guild of America ended its strike against the studios on Sept. 27. Members of the WGA ratified the agreement earlier this week to end the strike that began on May 2.
Actors pause pickets over safety concerns
Striking members of the SAG-AFTRA actors union stayed away from picket lines Friday over safety concerns, with law enforcement agencies across the Southland on heightened alert following calls for action by an ex-Hamas leader in the wake of the Middle East war.
“In light of potential safety concerns that are unrelated to our ongoing strike, there will be no SAG-AFTRA pickets in New York City or Los Angeles on Friday,” the actors union posted on X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday night.
The announcement came as a former Hamas leader called for Muslims around the world to demonstrate in support of Palestinians.
Demonstrations are planned for Friday and throughout the weekend in response to the conflict in Israel that started last weekend when Hamas terrorists attacked, kidnapped and killed Israelis.
The Los Angeles Police Department is reporting it has not found any credible threats targeting the city or religious communities.
“We are closely monitoring these events and are coordinating with Federal, State and Local partners on information sharing. We will continue to closely monitor these events,” the LAPD posted on social media.
Meanwhile, Sheriff Robert Luna said in a statement that his department was also monitoring activity in the county.
“We are aware of recent statements made calling for action as it relates to the conflict in the Middle East,” he said. “We have no information of any specific or credible threats in our areas and are continuing to assess the situation for any local impact in Los Angeles County.”
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