AMPTP

Actors Union Reaches Deal With Producers of Television and Film

Alan Rosenberg.ABC.com, AMPTP, CBS.com, Film, Hulu.com, NBC.com, S.A.G., TV

me-and-the-harlem-globetrotters

SAG, producers reach tentative deal

By David B. Wilkerson, MarketWatch

April 17, 2009

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) — The Screen Actors Guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers said Friday that they’ve reached a tentative agreement on a new deal covering TV programs and movies.
Details of the deal will not be disclosed, the two sides said in a joint statement, before the Screen Actors Guild’s board of directors formally reviews the agreement on Sunday during a videoconference in New York and Los Angeles.
A spokeswoman for SAG declined further comment about the agreement.
Should the deal be acceptable to SAG’s board, it probably won’t be ratified until around June 1, says Jonathan Handel, an entertainment attorney at TroyGould.
“Any opposing statements within the Guild have to be drafted, and Membership First has said they’ll oppose any deal,” Handel said, referring to a more militant wing of the guild led by President Alan Rosenberg.
According to SAG’s rules, the tentative agreement would then have to be mailed to SAG members, who would respond by mail.
By the time the voting process is completed, it will be late May, Handel commented.
To be ratified, the deal must receive 50% membership approval. “They won’t get the 90% range of approval that the Writers Guild got when it ratified its deal [last year],” Handel said, because there is opposition. But I think this deal gets done.”
SAG represents more than 122,000 actors. Its previous contract with the AMPTP expired June 30, 2008, a month after the producers walked out on negotiations.
The AMPTP represents the major studios, including those owned by Time Warner Inc. which also owns MarketWatch, the publisher of this report.
Among other demands, the actors have asked for residual payments from productions made specifically for the Web, cell phones and other nontraditional platforms, regardless of budget.
The union argued that the producers offer no residual compensation to actors for original programming that runs on ABC.com, NBC.com, CBS.com, Hulu.com or other network-owned new media platforms.
For its part, the AMPTP has said its offer to SAG would provide actors with $250 million more in compensation than did its previous contract, with terms related to online streaming that are similar to those accepted by other unions, including the Writers Guild of America, AFTRA and the Directors Guild of America. End of Story

David B. Wilkerson is a reporter for MarketWatch in Chicago.

Screen Actors Guild Calls For Strike Vote

Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, AMPTP, S.A.G., Screen Actors Guild


ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY

Oct 2, 2008, 08:11 AM | by Lynette Rice

With additional reporting by Vanessa Juarez

Remember all those worries about an actors’ strike if the union didn’t get the deal it wanted from the conglomerates?  Well, it’s far from over, folks. Yesterday, the Screen Actors Guild’s negotiating committee issued a recommendation that its National Board call for a strike authorization vote from the 120,000 members. The union cannot walk the picket line until 75 percent of members who vote on the issue say it is okay. The National Board is set to meet Oct. 18.

SAG is the lone holdout still negotiating a new contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (its previous deal expired in June). Guilds for the writers, directors, and daytime actors all signed new pacts with the major studios in the last year. Internet residuals continue represent a key sticking point in SAG’s stalled talks with the AMPTP. According to the advisory motion approved by the negotiating committee, “Negotiators…have requested that the , return to the bargaining table to negotiate a fair deal, and the AMPTP…has refused to change their position and continued to refuse to meet to attempt to advance the negotiations.”

The AMPTP responded by questioning whether this was really the time to talk about going on strike, especially given the dire situation on Wall Street. “Not only is the business suffering from recent economic decisions, but if ever there was a time when Americans wanted the diversions of movies and TV, it is now,” the AMPTP said in a statement. “The DGA, the WGA, and AFTRA reached agreements on comparable terms months ago, during far better economic times, and it is unrealistic for SAG negotiators now to expect even better terms during this grim financial climate. This is the harsh economic reality, and no strike will change that reality.”

Another major Hollywood strike so soon after last year’s Writers Guild of America work stoppage would be devastating to the economy in Los Angeles, where one in 10 jobs is said to be in the creative sector. As it is, Bloomberg News just reported that foreclosures in L.A. have tripled, and a strike would not only affect those who directly work in the entertainment industry, but those who make a living off of the biz peripherally, like interior designers and architects, for example.

TroyGould attorney and former WGA counsel Jonathan Handel, who has been blogging about the negotiations for quite some time, believes that a work stoppage now would be a risky roll of the dice by SAG. “A strike would almost certainly cause the studios to withdraw the offer on the table, and what SAG would get at the end of a long and bitter dispute is likely to be worse, or little better, than what they could get now. What SAG needs to do is close a deal promptly and live to fight — or strike — another day: mend the relationship with AFTRA, build closer alliances with the WGA, train its members to circumvent the studios by writing, directing, and producing their own new media productions, then come back strong in three years.”