Two weeks ago when the Screen Actors Guild of America (SAG) failed to reach agreement on its contract renewal with Hollywood studio bosses as represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers (AMPTP), it was expected that the other actors’ union, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists would be able to. Yet, no deal is in sight yet, with one of the key issues of disagreement between AFTRA and the AMPTP being, as with the SAG negotiations, new media residuals.
AFTRA mostly represents those actors who work in the daytime soap industry. Although there has been a press blackout around the negotiations, AFTRA informed its members that a speedy resolution was unlikely as the negotiators were facing several challenging issues.
Meanwhile SAG, whose contract expires on 30 June, will re-start negotiations with the AMPTP shortly. Hollywood has been expecting SAG to strike but a recent media report speculated that SAG would not get strike authorisation from its members and that producers would simply halt production on 1 July, should no agreement be reached before then. (Source: Studio Briefing)
