On Monday, SAG-AFTRA shared a breakdown of the proposals they made during contract negotiations and the counters they received from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.
The AMPTP responded Friday with their own perspective on the proposals, reiterating that their offer was “worth more than $1 billion” (a claim that’s been disputed by SAG-AFTRA’s president and secretary-treasurer). They say portions of the union’s chart “are misleading, either in the characterization of the Producers’ offer or in the omission of key details.”
In an updated version of the union’s proposal chart, the AMPTP offers a detailed response on what SAG-AFTRA “failed to mention.”
The union had stated that the AMPTP countered their 11% proposed year-one wage increase with a 5% increase. Without an “inflation-adjusted year-one wage increase,” they said their real wages will be lower in 2023 than they were in 2020.
The AMPTP didn’t directly dispute those claims, but said their offer is “historic,” since the union hasn’t seen a 5% wage increase since 1988. The producers calculated that the total value of their proposed wage increase over the next three years would be more than double the total value of the wage increase in the 2020 contract.
They also said they had agreed to an 11% wage increase for background actors, stand-ins, and photo doubles.
The producers also offered explanations for their rejections of some of the union’s proposals, such as revenue sharing for actors on high-performing streaming shows.
“The Union is proposing that performers share in the rewards of a successful show, without bearing any of the risk,” the AMPTP said. They argued that since producers don’t share in the revenue generated by streaming services, performers shouldn’t get to share in it either.
The AMPTP also said they offered increases to residuals for high-budget streaming programs, with the largest streaming services “paying 22% more in residuals,” including 75% in foreign residuals.
(For reference on the current residual rates, the New Yorker recently reported that “Orange Is the New Black” star Kimiko Glenn received a foreign-royalty check for $27.39 a year after the hit show’s final season.)
Regarding AI, the producers say the union didn’t respond to their last counter. They claim their proposal would require “informed consent and fair compensation” when a “digital replica” is made of a performer, along with consent to use that “digital replica” in a motion picture.
They also said they agreed not to use digital replicas of background actors in lieu of hiring “the required number of covered background actors under the Agreement.”
In defense of their refusal to increase penalties for not providing meal breaks, the producers said they had already “responded to a multitude of the Union’s other priority proposals.”
Ironically, some of the AMPTP’s rebuttals actually seem to confirm SAG-AFTRA’s claims. The union said the studios had offered to raise per diem rates, which haven’t been increased since 2001, by “far less than inflation.” The AMPTP shot back that they had offered a total per diem increase of 25% by the third year of the agreement. However, according to consumer price index data, the cumulative inflation rate since 2001 is over 72%.
The AMPTP also elaborates on some of the agreements they had already reached with the union before negotiations broke off. Guest star-level performers on all high-budget streaming series and first-season of pay TV series will see a 58% salary increase under the tentative agreement.
SAG-AFTRA chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland responded to the AMPTP's statement Friday, telling Deadline that everything in their chart "is accurate and we stand by it."
Read the full document below.
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