THR Illustration / Michael Buckner
After a tense week that saw SAG-AFTRA and Hollywood studios swap proposals over a new three-year labor contract, both sides are expected to meet again over the weekend amid the ongoing actors’ strike, according to a source close to the negotiations.
Four top company executives that had been present in previous negotiations sessions over the week — Bob Iger, Ted Sarandos, Donna Langley and David Zaslav — were not present in Friday’s session, at least initially, according to sources, which saw Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers president Carol Lombardini lead talks on behalf of the industry.
“SAG-AFTRA declines to comment due to our ongoing negotiations and deep focus on negotiating in good faith to secure a fair deal for SAG-AFTRA members,” said a spokesperson for the union. The Hollywood Reporter also reached out to the AMPTP for comment.
Negotiations between labor and management over the new SAG-AFTRA contract restarted after a nearly two-week break on Tuesday. That day, Iger, Langley, Sarandos, Zaslav and the AMPTP presented the union with some new ideas, such as adjusting a previous success-based streaming bonus proposal to reward creatives behind programs that do well on services like Netflix or Disney+. (The union, conversely, had previously advocated for members to receive a share of streaming platform revenue and later pushed, instead, to institute charging a fee per streaming subscriber.)
The studios also offered a higher increase to wage floors for performers, bumping up their previous offer of a 5 percent increase in the first year to a 7 percent increase. (This proposal, however, was still several percentage points away from the 11 percent increase that SAG-AFTRA initially sought.)
After taking a day to consider their options, union negotiators offered their response on Thursday, including an adjusted plan to capture more streaming compensation for members, said one studio-side source. The union also downgraded its wage floor increase proposal from 11 percent to 9 percent. And that night, in a show of support for union leadership, thousands of union members including Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Cynthia Nixon, Mark Ruffalo and Demi Moore signed a letter urging their negotiators not to “cave now.” Continued the letter, “As hard as this is, we would rather stay on strike than take a bad deal.”
On the 106th day of the actors’ strike, both sides are feeling immense pressure to come to terms. The studios are attempting to salvage their 2024 broadcast and theatrical calendars that haven’t already been impacted after months of significant disruption to production. Just as the meeting got underway, Disney announced it is delaying its two spring tentpoles — Snow White and Pixar’s Elio — by more than a year amid the ongoing strike and impasse. Meanwhile, the union has been facing questions from A-list members who have been eager for talks with Hollywood companies to make real progress.
Pamela McClintock contributed to this report.
