Screen Actors Guild negotiators delivered a substantial counteroffer to major Hollywood studios as the two parties tried to end the more than 3-month-old Hollywood walkout.
Representatives of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and SAG-AFTRA are expected to meet Friday to review what the union has called a “comprehensive” counteroffer. The details of the offer have not been made public.
In anticipation of the meeting, several SAG members collaborated on a letter asking negotiators to continue to fight for improvements to wages, royalties and workplace protections.
“We have not come all this way to cave now. We have not gone without work, without pay, and walked picket lines for months just to give up on everything we’ve been fighting for,” the letter reads. “We cannot and will not accept a contract that fails to address the vital and existential problems that we all need fixed.”
The letter is the most high-profile response from rank-and-file members since negotiations broke down this month. After talks stalled over residual payments, several A-list stars talked directly to SAG management urging them to hammer out a deal with the studios and end the strike.
The talks between the actors and the major studios broke down over the actors’ demands for higher residual payments. The studios said the demands were unreasonable and that they had offered SAG-AFTRA what the previously striking writers had already agreed to.
The SAG-AFTRA strike that began July 14 has already cost the entertainment industry millions and has almost completely halted movie and television production. Several high-profile releases have been pushed back, likely due to the strike, including the newest “Mission Impossible” film and “Dune Part 2.”
• Vaughn Cockayne can be reached at vcockayne@washingtontimes.com.
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