George Clooney
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George Clooney and a group of other senior members have presented a bold proposal to SAG-AFTRA leaders that proposes that the union lift the dues cap for high-earning members in order to put more money into the union’s coffers over three years.
The idea behind the proposal is for big stars like Clooney to pay more dues than is currently required (the cap is currently $1 million in earnings) to bridge the gap between the union’s negotiations with entertainment studios in 2023 and what the Alliance of Film and Television Producers is willing to give. The proposal also aims to ensure that lower-income members are paid in residual amounts before higher-income members.
The group of senior figures met with national executive director and chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland and President Fran Drescher to pitch the idea, and those leaders shared the outline of the proposal with the negotiating committee on Wednesday evening, confirmed. Deadline was first to report the news.
THR has reached out to SAG-AFTRA for comment.
The way the union works is complex and the proposals are very comprehensive. For example, only the SAG-AFTRA National Convention (which next meets this weekend) has the authority to change the union’s dues system. And the stars also appear to be proposing to lift the contribution cap for all members, not just their superstar cohort. “It’s great that they want to be helpful. There are structural problems with what they are proposing, so our contracts and our union are not working. We would love for them to step up as captains now,” said a SAG-AFTRA insider.
The proposal follows a Zoom call that key SAG-AFTRA members joined on Tuesday with top union leaders to learn more about what led to the current impasse in negotiations with the AMPTP. Scarlett Johansson, Kerry Washington, Tyler Perry, Bradley Cooper, Meryl Streep, Robert DeNiro, Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Emma Stone, Laura Dern and Ryan Reynolds were all present on Tuesday’s call, a person familiar with the meeting said Source THR.
The Stars’ proposal aims to provide the union with more revenue, but does not address the specific sticking points of the current negotiations. The union and entertainment studios are currently grappling with SAG-AFTRA’s streaming viewership proposal, which aims to charge streaming platforms 57 cents per subscriber per year to create a fund that will put the casts to work would continue to be paid on these platforms. SAG-AFTRA’s current proposal, which the AMPTP has so far resisted, would cost studios about $480 million per year. In other words, the union is trying to create a new revenue stream for members in the streaming era based on subscriber counts, while the companies are refusing to set this new precedent at a time when most streaming platforms are not yet are profitable.
The parties also continue to have disagreements over issues such as regulations on the use of AI in the entertainment industry and increases in minimum wages. The studios say their current package of proposals is worth over $1 billion.
There’s more to come.
Rebecca Keegan contributed reporting.