The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers claimed SAG-AFTRA, the union representing the actors, walked out on a last-minute deal worth over $1 billion.
“The deal that SAG-AFTRA walked away from on July 12 is worth more than $1 billion in wage increases, pension & health contributions and residual increases and includes first-of-their-kind protections over its three-year term, including expressly with respect to AI,” AMPTP said in a press release.
It also claimed the deal offered “substantial increases in pension and health contribution caps” and a “groundbreaking AI proposal which protects performers’ digital likenesses.” It also proposed the “highest percentage increase in minimum in 35 years.”
“The AMPTP's goal from day one has been to come to a mutually beneficial agreement with SAG-AFTRA. A strike is not the outcome we wanted,” AMPTP went on. “For SAG-AFTRA to assert that we have not been responsive to the needs of its membership is disingenuous at best.”
Joely Fisher, SAG-AFTRA's national secretary-treasurer, told L.A, Morning News that the “billion-dollar” offer isn’t true.
“I didn't see the latest thing from the producers but, I kind of think it's a little bit of B.S, quite frankly,” she said. “I was there for 35 days. They're not heads of studios. They're accountants and lawyers and bean counters and they represent, you know, their entities, and [SAG-AFTRA] sat eye to eye with them and, and went back and forth across the table with proposals that represented what was fair and what was just and what represented the cost of inflation and the cost of living…”
AMPTP's statement comes after SAG-AFTRA said in a message that the companies represented by AMPTP "are committed to prioritizing shareholders and Wall Street."
"We moved on some things, but from day one they wouldn’t meaningfully engage on the most critical issues," SAG-AFTRA said.
The union also released its proposals and what AMPTP countered and rejected,
SAG-AFTRA kicked off its strike on Friday. During a press conference announcing the strike, union president Fran Drescher said the union was “being victimized by a very greedy entity.”
“I am shocked by the way the people we have been in business with are treating us. I cannot believe it, quite frankly, how far apart we are on certain things,” she said.
“How they plead poverty, that they’re losing money left and right when giving hundreds of millions of dollars to their CEOs. It is disgusting. Shame on them!”
Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the union’s National Executive Director and chief negotiator, told reporters in that same press conference that AMPTP wanted “scan” background actors and give them one day’s pay.
“This 'groundbreaking' AI proposal that they gave us yesterday, they proposed that our background performers should be able to be scanned, get paid for one day's pay, and their company should own that scan their image, their likeness and should be able to use it for the rest of eternity in any project they want with no consent and no compensation," he said. "So if you think that's a groundbreaking proposal, I suggest you think again."
SAG-AFTRA’s strike has already caused multiple productions to pause, including “Gladiator 2” and “Deadpool 3.” It also has impacted the red carpet. Disney held its red carpet premiere for “Haunted Mansion” without the movie’s stars present.
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