SAG-AFTRA is expected to hold negotiations with major studios over the weekend as both sides continue to work toward an agreement to end the 106-day strike.
Meetings can be virtual rather than in person.
“We have had a full and productive day of work internally and will continue through the weekend,” the union told its members in an email Friday evening. “We thank you for the incredible solidarity and support you have shown on the picket lines and across the country all week.”
The two sides met Friday for the third day of the week at SAG-AFTRA headquarters. But four studio CEOs — Warner Bros. Discovery’s David Zaslav, NBCUniversal’s Donna Langley, Netflix’s Ted Sarandos and Disney’s Bob Iger — who were present at the earlier meetings were not at the table Friday, a source said.
SAG-AFTRA declined to comment but said it remains focused on negotiating a fair deal.
CEOs put forward a new proposal Tuesday that they hoped would help break the three-month stalemate. The actors’ union countered on Thursday. Although some progress has been made, studios remain frustrated with SAG-AFTRA’s negotiating position.
Nevertheless, there are always glimmers of hope in the industry. Michael Akins, the Georgia business representative for IATSE Local 479, told members in an email Friday afternoon that they are ready to get back to work sometime in November.
“At this point we have no concrete information from any studio, but it is clear that the industry shutdown is in its final days,” Akins wrote. “We are confident that our members will return to work in the next few weeks.”
Akins wrote that some productions have already begun contacting department heads and that production offices could open as early as next week.
It remains unclear whether this optimism is justified, as the actors’ union still has a long list of demands.
SAG-AFTRA wants a new structure for streaming residuals that would expand on the residuals that currently exist. The union also calls for protective measures when using artificial intelligence to create “digital doppelgangers”. His proposals include a minimum wage rate for digital doppelgängers and union approval. The studios have resisted giving the union a veto over the use of AI.
CEOs have warned that little time remains to salvage the 2023-24 broadcast season, and they remain concerned that the summer movie season will be severely damaged if the strike is not resolved soon. On Friday, Disney announced that it would be delaying its live-action film “Snow White,” which was originally scheduled to be released in March, by a full year. This follows similar shifts by other studios.
The Hollywood unions, including IATSE and the Teamsters, also held a food drive at a church in Santa Clarita on Friday, distributing boxes of food to nearly 2,500 people. Unions have held similar events before as many below-the-line workers were unemployed for almost a year.
Meanwhile, thousands of SAG-AFTRA members signed an open letter in support of the union’s bargaining committee, saying they would rather stay on strike than get a bad deal.
The letter came in response to efforts by George Clooney, Ben Affleck and other celebrities to propose an alternative solution, pressuring guild leadership to reach an agreement.
Kate Bond, a strike leader who has demonstrated at Warner Bros. and Paramount, wrote the letter.
“We knew there was this prominent group that was putting pressure on the negotiating committee to accept the current deal,” she said in an interview. “We wanted to make sure they knew we continued to support the original strategy.”
The letter was distributed among the strike captains. When it was posted Thursday evening, it had about 3,600 signatures. By midday on Friday, almost 4,500 signatures had been received.
“We fight for the actors who have no influence,” Bond added. “It’s really hard for more prominent members to understand. They negotiate their own contracts. You are not fulfilling this contract. I understand why George Clooney would look at this and say, “I can’t work for six months because someone wants to work for $1,050 a day and not $1,000 a day?” I understand how they would feel. But it’s a union, and a union is about all of us or none of us.”