AMPTP stands ground & reveals $1bn offer to “disingenuous” SAG-AFTRA

With the SAG-AFTRA strike now almost a week in, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) has claimed that the actors’ union walked away from a deal amounting to $1bn above its previous contract.

Defending its position, the AMPTP, which represents major studios and streamers, including Amazon, Apple, Disney, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Paramount, Sony and Warner Bros. Discovery, has accused SAG-AFTRA of “deliberately [distorting] the offers made by AMPTP.”

In a statement released by the alliance, it said that: “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.”

A strike is not the outcome we wanted – for SAG-AFTRA to assert that we have not been responsive to the needs of its membership is disingenuous at best

AMPTP

As reported earlier in the week, the AMPTP offer included a 76% increase in high budget SVOD foreign residuals, as well as a 58% increase in salaries for major role (guest star) performers wages on high budget SVOD shows and an 11% pay increase in year one for background actors, stand-ins and photo doubles.

SAG-AFTRA had previously accused the AMPTP of being “unwilling to offer a fair deal on the key issues that are essential to SAG-AFTRA members”, while union president Fran Drescher said that studios had made “Wall Street and greed their priority” when announcing the strike last Thursday.

The Chosen, the religious drama about the life of Jesus of Nazareth, which was recently picked up for distribution by Lionsgate, and has been sold to Netflix, Canal+, Peacock and Prime Video, is the first known show to have received permission from SAG-AFTRA to resume filming.

Such deals are being offered to “truly independent producers” that are not affiliated with the AMPTP.

AMPTP claims SAG-AFTRA “mischaracterisation”

In its recent statement, the AMPTP responded: “Despite what SAG-AFTRA would have you believe today, at its ratification in 2020, the current SAG-AFTRA contract was hailed by SAG-AFTRA leadership as ‘the most lucrative deal we have ever negotiated… valued at $318 million over the three-year term of the contract.’

SAG-AFTRA further stated at the time that the deal “sets up for our long-term future… a forward-thinking agreement that builds on the changing realities of the streaming business.’

“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. For SAG-AFTRA to assert that we have not been responsive to the needs of its membership is disingenuous at best.”

The AMPTP has also claimed that “SAG-AFTRA continues to publicly mischaracterise AMPTP’s AI proposal” and accused the actors’ union of distorting the facts “in an effort to garner support for its work stoppage.”

SAG-AFTRA, like Equity, is also bravely facing head-on existential questions on issues like artificial intelligence and the rise in virtual auditions and self-tapes

Equity

The alliance said that it agrees with SAG-AFTRA that use of a performer’s likeness to generate a new performance requires consent and compensation. AMPTP proposals would require “advance, specific consent from the performer required both to create and use digital replicas,” including prohibition of later use of that replica unless the performer specifically consents to that new use and is paid for it.

It also suggests that no “digital alteration” that would change the nature of an actor’s performance in a role should be allowed without informing the performer of the intended alteration and securing the performer’s consent.

The AMPTP also said it stands by existing SAG-AFTRA rules that require producers to hire up to a specified number of background actors under the SAG-AFTRA contract per day.

UK’s Equity rallies in solidarity

While the AMPTP works to publicly state its case, SAG-AFTRA appears to be enjoying the wider support, with Equity, the performing arts and entertainment industries trade union for the UK, among those coming out in solidarity for US performers.

Equity is holding two rallies “in solidarity with sister union SAG-AFTRA” in London and Manchester in the UK on Friday and has said that it “will not allow the UK to become a back door to undermine the strike.”

In a statement, the UK union is also facing “bullish engagers attempting to undermine its collectively bargained agreements” and criticised the “draconian” industrial relations legislation in the UK, which it claimed are “often viewed as the most restrictive in the Western world.”

“The convoluted and pernicious hurdles faced by all unions in the United Kingdom are a national disgrace and need urgent reform. The regrettable consequence of this framework is that what artists working in the United Kingdom – whether SAG-AFTRA and/or Equity members (or both) – can do, may be different from their comrades in the United States and other parts of the world.”

It continued: “SAG-AFTRA, like Equity, is also bravely facing head-on existential questions on issues like artificial intelligence (AI), and the rise in virtual auditions and self-tapes. Securing fairness in pay, terms, and conditions is critical whether they be with traditional producers, or new global streamers, and with new modes of making and distributing work to a global audience.”