AMPTP PUSHES ALL IN - ‘FINAL OFFER’ IS ON THE TABLE

We don’t know much about what’s going on in the SAG and AMPTP talks but according to Daily Variety, the studio’s ‘final offer’ is now on the table.

With SAG’s feature-primetime contract expiring, the majors have turned up the pressure by making the guild a final offer with increases valued at over $250 million over the three-year terms of the deal.

The “final offer” move — a tactic never used during the WGA strike — came Monday afternoon in the 42nd day of negotiations following five weeks of highly unproductive talks. But the moguls also said they won’t lock out SAG while the guild toppers ponder the deal.

“As SAG’s leadership considers our final offer, we will continue for now to work under the terms of the old contract as current productions wind down,” the AMPTP said.

SAG hasn’t responded to the final offer publicly but members received a ‘end of contract’ email today that states in part:

Dear Screen Actors Guild Member:

Your national negotiating committee and the industry bargained throughout the weekend and are continuing bargaining today. Nonetheless, the Screen Actors Guild Codified Basic and Television Agreements which cover television programs and motion pictures expire tonight at midnight. All members should continue to report to work and to audition for new work past the expiration date until further notice from the Guild. Such work will be covered under the terms of the expired television and theatrical agreements.

So the situation is that there is no call for a strike vote, actors are to keep showing up for work under the expiring contract and the producers have made what they say is their ‘final offer’. The producers COULD call for a lock out of actors at the expiration of the contract but so far have not taken that move. And, that doesn’t seem likely.

Why would the producers want to make a move that makes them look like corporate bad guys in this fight when SAG has allowed itself to be portrayed as the party most likely to bring financial ruin to its membership? It is more likely that the AMPTP will continue to stress the discord between SAG and AFTRA, continue to remind the public that they have made SAG ‘the same’ offers that have already been accepted by the WGA, DGA and AFTRA and continue to recount the dollars and jobs lost during the WGA strike.

This vamping is likely to continue until the results of the AFTRA ratification vote are known. If this were a purely political race, the pollsters would already be able to tell us all which way the AFTRA vote was going and there might be a late night announcement tonight that the two sides have settled.

Maybe I’ll stay up extra late tonight, just in case.