While walking the picket line Thursday outside of Netflix, SAG-AFTRA‘s Duncan Crabtree-Ireland expressed his frustration over the suspension in talks the studios called last night. His full interview can be found above.
“The negotiating room yesterday was a session just like the others that we’ve had,” the SAG-AFTRA chief negotiator told Deadline. “It wasn’t until later in the evening, I started getting calls from CEOs and Carol Lombardini that they decided to cancel our scheduled session for today and that they weren’t planning to return to the table. So at this moment, I do not understand why they think that’s a way to move this process forward, why they think that that’s going to help bring them back to health. It’s very, very disappointing.”
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Questioned whether this is going to impact the hope that TV shows can get back into production by month’s end, Crabtree-Ireland said “it’s possible, but it’s not going to happen if they walk away from negotiations. So long as they refused to talk to us that is possible. So long as they are at the table talking with us helping us all find a path forward than that, then that’s possible. So let’s get back to the table and let’s put this sort of, I don’t even know how to describe it, this sort of response aside, and let’s get back in the room.”
One proposal the AMPTP has “refused to bend on” from the get-go and in the latest round of talks thst started on October 2, Crabtree-Ireland says, is the union’s streaming revenue proposal.
“They told us under no circumstances would we agree to something that’s attached to revenue so our committee went back, soul searched, worked really hard for a couple of days and we came yesterday came with a new proposal that doesn’t attach to revenue, it attaches to subscriber levels just like they asked. Their response to that was, instead of being ‘oh, wow, this is something we can talk about,’ their response was, ‘we are walking away from negotiations.”
With the five-month long WGA strike now settled and the actor’s guild on their 92nd day on the picket lines, Crabtree-Ireland also had this message to below-the-line workers who remain out of work because of the strike: “We are doing our best to try and make a deal. We know our members. We all feel the pain that this has caused by the companies. The people who aren’t feeling the pain, as far as I can tell, is people who walk away from the table and show no sense of urgency to make the deal and we want the strike to come to an end. But it has to be on fair terms. Those same workers, the same crew members, and teachers and basic craftsmen, the members, they’re gonna be in negotiations next year. They know why we’re fighting. And I think they understand that we are trying really hard to make a deal
The AMPTP released this statement Wednesday night after what was described to Deadline as a “much rockier than usual” bargaining session:
Negotiations between the AMPTP and SAG-AFTRA have been 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.
SAG-AFTRA’s current offer included what it characterized as a viewership bonus that, by itself, would cost more than $800 million per year – which would create an untenable economic burden. SAG-AFTRA presented few, if any, moves on the numerous remaining open items.
Member company executives and AMPTP representatives met with SAG-AFTRA for five days over the past eight workdays. During that time period, AMPTP extended offers including:
• A first-of-its-kind success-based residual for High-Budget SVOD productions.
• The highest percentage increase in minimums in 35 years, which would generate an additional $717 million in wages and $177 million in contributions to the Pension and Health Plans during the contract term.
• A 58% increase in salaries for major role (guest star) performers wages on High Budget SVOD Programs.
• A 76% increase in High Budget SVOD foreign residuals for the four largest streaming services.
Substantial increases in pension and health contribution caps, ranging from 22-33%, which will make it easier for performers to qualify for additional periods of health coverage and earn years of service toward a pension.
• Meeting nearly all of the Union’s demands on casting, including guardrails around self-tapes, options for virtual and in-person auditions, and accommodations to performers with disabilities.
• Compensation adjustments of 25% for singers who dance and dancers who sing on camera in the same session, whether in rehearsal or photography, representing a 30% increase over current wages.
• Wage increases for stunt coordinators of 10% in the first year and outsized increases in years two and three, and giving television stunt coordinators fixed residuals for the first time ever.
• Substantial improvements in relocation allowance – a 200% increase if the performer is on an overnight location for 6 months. The relocation allowance would now be payable for every season in which the performer is on an overnight location (versus a current limit of two to four seasons).
• Substantial increases in Schedule F money breaks of between 11% and 41%. The 41% increase applies to one-hour television programs, which covers the largest number of productions done under the Agreement.
• A 25% increase in span money breaks.
• Covering performance capture work under the Agreement, which the Union has sought for 20 years.
On AI protections:
• Advance consent from the performer and background actor to create and use Digital Replicas;
No Digital Replica of the performer can be used without the performer’s written consent and description of the intended use in the film;
• Prohibition of later use of that Replica, unless performer specifically consents to that new use and is paid for it; and,
• A “Digital Alteration” that would change the nature of an actor’s performance in a role is not permitted without informing the performer of the intended alteration and securing the performer’s consent.
On common issues, such as general wage increases, High-Budget SVOD residuals, and viewership bonuses, the AMPTP offered the same terms that were ratified by the DGA and WGA. Yet SAG-AFTRA rejected these.
We hope that SAG-AFTRA will reconsider and return to productive negotiations soon.
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