Posted in: Movies, Opinion, streaming, TV, TV | Tagged: amptp, DGA, SAG-AFTRA, wga

SAG-AFTRA Should Take The Time It Needs to Review AMPTP Proposal

SAG-AFTRA should get at least the same amount of time to review AMPTP's proposal as the studios & streamers took to submit it to the union.

As the 115th day of the SAG-AFTRA/AMPTP strike comes to a close, reports are that the union will need at least another day to review the studios & streamers' "Last, Best, and Final Offer" that was submitted to SAG-AFTRA on Saturday. In a previous message to its members, the union's negotiating committee explained that it was "reviewing it [the proposal] and considering our response within the context of the critical issues addressed in our proposals." With the AMPTP having submitted what was described as a "comprehensive" offer in response to the union's previous two proposals, both sides met briefly on Saturday before SAG-AFTRA began going over the specifics of what AMPTP was offering and discussing the union's next steps. While there are rumblings on social media on what the AMPTP's offer may or may not contain, neither the studios & streamers nor the union have offered specifics on the record. Considering the stakes that are in play and the number of issues being addressed, it makes sense that the union would take the same amount of time to review a proposal that the studios & streamers took to craft it. We've all been down the "Last, Best, and Final Offer" road before – but what does that even mean (beyond great wording for a headline)? Not much – unless they suddenly decide to get out of the film & television business. But while all of that's going on? Maybe it's time for some of the mega-A-list names to start calling their CEO friends and applying a little "friendly pressure" to make the deal a done deal.

As reported earlier, NBCUniversal's Donna Langley, Warner Bros Discovery's David Zaslav, Disney's Bob Iger, and Netflix's Ted Sarandos – the four studio leaders who've had the most direct involvement in these negotiations and the negotiations with the WGA – were joined on the Zoom call on Saturday by a number of other executives. Reportedly, Paramount Pictures CEO Brian Robbins, Disney's Dana Walden & Co-Chairman Alan Bergman, Amazon Studios' Mike Hopkins & Jen Salke, Sony Pictures Chairperson Tony Vinciquerra, Apple Studios' Jamie Erlicht & Zack Van Amburg also participated in today's virtual talks.

On Wednesday night, SAG-AFTRA messaged its members to inform them that they had met that day "to discuss and finalize our response to the AMPTP AI counter-proposal" that the union received from the AMPTP on Tuesday. "The negotiators then met with AMPTP representatives for more than three hours" on Wednesday afternoon and evening "to present and review our revised proposal." SAG-AFTRA TV/Theatrical Negotiating Committee added in their update that it was still awaiting "the AMPTP's response to our comprehensive counter proposal package, which we gave them on Saturday, addressing outstanding issues." And that brought us to Thursday – with no response from the AMPTP leading to no formal talks between SAG-AFTRA Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland's and AMPTP President Carol Lombardini's teams. However, additional reporting on Friday revealed that "conversations" did take place between the union and the studios & streamers on Thursday and Friday. Meanwhile, SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher had a brief but important message for the studios & streamers at the end of a recent Instagram post: "TGIF! Let's hope the AMPTP CEOs resurface with a seal-the-deal counter! 🙏💪🤞🏽":

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!