SAG and AMPTP Gearing up for ‘final’ clash over contract

I haven’t posted anything here recently about the ongoing ‘talks’ between SAG and the AMPTP because there really hasn’t been anything new to report. SAG is more or less vamping with the AMPTP while they work furiously to convince dual guild members like myself to vote down the AFTRA agreement.

Yes, I received one of the calls from Sandra Oh from “Grey’s Anatomy”. I’d have been more likely to be impressed had the call not been a recorded message. At least then we could have talked about ‘Sideways’ or something more pleasurable than two bickering unions. The problem with the possibility of a Sandra Oh or any other highly paid actor/actress swaying my opinion is that I know they don’t really work within the confines of the CBA. I also don’t care about hearing from George Clooney or Tom Hanks or any other actor pulling down $20+ million a film.

The AFTRA and SAG contracts provide structure to deals made my attorneys for those who have ‘made it’ but these actors on hit shows or high dollar actors in films aren’t relying on the minimums laid out in our collective bargaining agreement in their own contracts with networks and studios. They have contracts that pay them well above any minimum established by the guilds’ agreements.

That is not to say that Sandra Oh is not right to urge rejection of the AFTRA guild. It’s just that I’d be much more likely to be swayed one way or the other by a call from some ‘middle class’ working actor who has a well thought out opinion about how this contract will impact his/her future as a union actor.

Right now SAG is spending a lot of time and money on its effort to derail the AFTRA agreement. There has been no strike authorization vote and as I’ve stated previously, I don’t expect that because SAG is none too sure that such a vote would pass. Then where would SAG be?

Per today’s Daily Variety, here’s the way the producer’s are thinking:

With negligible progress at the Screen Actors Guild negotiations, the majors are moving toward making the guild a last, best and final offer.

The “final offer” move — a tactic never used during the WGA strike — could come as early as next week, unless SAG changes course and backs away from an array of demands that are nonstarters for the companies, including an increase in DVD residuals and sweeter terms for new-media residuals than those achieved earlier this year by the DGA, WGA and AFTRA.

Talks, which hit their 34th day on Thursday, are said to have been highly unproductive during the past few weeks, with the exasperation level rising for both sides. Negotiations are set to resume today.

The biz is anticipating that production will mostly grind to a halt in another week and a half, even if SAG does not go on strike immediately after the June 30 expiration of its current feature-primetime contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (Daily Variety, June 17).

More than one option

While the exact timing of the final offer’s still in flux, it’s almost certain that the congloms would present it to SAG before June 30. Should the talks remain at an impasse at that point, it’s likely that studios and nets would pressure SAG by publicly highlighting the financial damage from the production slowdown and the 100-day WGA strike.

In a recent study at the Milken Institute, researchers asserted that the writers strike will cost California $2.1 billion in lost output this year and 37,000 jobs….

…The companies have stayed mum as to how SAG’s leaders may be swayed to accept a deal that largely mirrors the AFTRA terms, but it’s widely thought the most promising prospect would be in two actor-specific areas: maintaining the current protections in the force majeure language, under which performers on suspended TV series during a strike still receive a portion of their salaries, and establishing protections on product integration that would allow a thesp to veto appearing in a scenes written to make it seem that the actor is endorsing a product.

SAG has millions of dollars in strike-related force majeure claims pending against the producers, who are seeking to remove the requirement from the contract.

Frustration’s been mounting in recent days as it becomes increasingly clear that SAG won’t budge until the AFTRA results are announced around July 8. The AMPTP accused SAG last week of using the AFTRA vote to stall; SAG leaders have turned that vote into a referendum on its ongoing strategy of criticizing AFTRA for being too compliant with employers and for signing deals that encroached on SAG’s turf.

The split between AFTRA and SAG has become so acrimonious that one wonders peace will ever be restored between the two. The latest email blast from SAG contains this:

GET REAL ABOUT THE AFTRA DEAL

Screen Actors Guild Wants…..

REAL MONEY…..IN REAL ACTORS’ POCKETS

By now you’ve heard a lot about AFTRA’s tentative deal with the networks and studios. What you haven’t heard
is how much it’s really worth to actors. We know SAG actors have a lot at stake in the SAG TV/Theatrical negotiations,
and the numbers below prove it.

AFTRA’s Tentative Deal:

Currently covers only a handful of AFTRA series. The aggregate value of the increases achieved in their tentative deal
amounts to less than $5 million over three years (when valued using the AMPTP’s methodology and
based on AFTRA’s coverage over the past season.)

SAG:

Screen Actors Guild covers more than 90% of all primetime scripted dramatic television on the networks and pay
television, and covers ALL theatrical motion pictures. Total SAG earnings from network and pay TV, and
theatrical motion pictures over the most recent 3-year contract period exceeded $4 billion.

Did anyone else cringe at the ‘REAL ACTORS’ language?

I don’t particularly like the AFTRA deal. But the more this thing grinds on the more I realize I can’t support a strike.

If I thought we could strike and win significant concessions AND make up for all the money lost…to say nothing of houses lost, careers lost…during a strike I’d be more in favor of that tact. Been there, done that. Several times. Not too excited about doing it again anytime soon.