SAG-AFTRA Strike Nears End, Deal Expected Over the Weekend
It’s been quite the ride, but in the end, the actors may just end up taking a cue from the writers’ script. The AMPTP left the negotiating table with both the WGA and SAG-AFTRA at some point once negotiations resumed post-summer, and then announced that a couple of weeks later they would restart negotiations to end the strike (Wednesday and Tuesday, respectively for each guild). In both instances, that happened after high-earning figures inside both guilds expressed their disappointment that management was taking this long to close, and after studios essentially threatened with a “deal now or deal never” scenario.
Talks stretched in both instances over the weekend right after that final set of days, and word around town was that a deal was imminent. Deadline reported on Friday that the two sides will meet again on Saturday, although they were quick to note that the studios were “underwhelmed” by SAG’s latest counter to the proposal they extended earlier this week. Is this studio talk for “we want one last squeeze” or is it really a situation where this might actually get dragged on another five days?
Meeting again on a Saturday certainly screams “Let’s end this here and now”, and word on social media is much more positive. Reporter Jeff Sneider tweeted that bottles are being popped around town, adding from one source that this is merely a formality now. And it certainly reads that way. Those final two days in the WGA negotiations were essentially for the lawyers to enter the room and discuss all the legal minutiae of the AI regulations.
The union’s progress on cutting artificial intelligence usage hasn’t been reported much lately, with the media centering around streaming residuals and the profit-participation model that Fran Drescher, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, and the union’s leadership had drafted. That was never going to fly for the AMPTP, and it looks like the dust will finally settle on a slight improvement over the WGA’s success-compensation algorithm. Details are scarce here, but The Hollywood Reporter did note a massive shift for SAG-AFTRA that may be compensated elsewhere (perhaps in AI regulations). Apparently, the union is no longer asking for an 11% minimum wage increase, but rather 9% now.
Let’s hope this all comes to a close soon, that actors will actually be allowed to dress up as Barbie on Tuesday.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as authors like Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
