After a month of tense negotiations between Hollywood actors’ union and the major studios, the Screen Actors Guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers will continue talking, averting a strike for at least for 12 more days.
The contract, which was set to expire at 11:59 p.m. PDT Friday, will now expire on July 12 at the same time, the actors union and the studios and networks group said in a joint statement. “The parties will continue to negotiate under a mutually agreed upon media blackout.” The new deadline falls just hours after TV’s Emmy Awards announce nominations for this year’s ceremony.
There is a lot at stake in the “seminal” negotiations, so-called by SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher. The rise of streaming services, the advent of artificial intelligence technology and the greater economic headwinds have changed how actors are paid. Actors want increased base compensation, which they say has been undercut by inflation and the streaming ecosystem, regulated use of artificial intelligence, better benefit plans and money for “self-taped auditions” – the cost of which used to be the responsibility of casting and production.
Drescher and chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland sent a hopeful message to the membership over the weekend about the talks. It was quickly followed Wednesday by an open letter from over 1000 SAG members to the leadership. The letter, signed by names as big as Meryl Streep and Jennifer Lawrence, expressed the membership’s sincere willingness to strike if they were not able to achieve all their demands in a new contract.
The entertainment industry is already mostly shut down after the Writers Guild of America went on strike May 2. Actors shared many of the same concerns and demands as the writers, including regulating AI and establishing an updated pay scale for work on streaming content. It is possible deal with SAG could move the needle in negotiations between the AMPTP and the WGA. The AMPTP also reached a deal with the Directors Guild of America that was ratified by its membership June 24.
We are watching this very closely.
