Labor Solstice: Hollywood Guild Negotiations Reach Pivotal Moment As SAG-AFTRA Talks Near Deadline & DGA Deal Vote Closes

William Earl With five days to go, SAG-AFTRA is stepping up its efforts to prepare for going on strike even as contract negotiations with Hollywood’s major studios intensify. On Thursday, SAG-AFTRA distributed a survey to its 160,000 members and alerted them that the union would be calling for volunteers to help make signs, work phone banks, distribute T-shirts and generally support a mobilization of pickets on the streets of Los Angeles, New York and selected other locations. The email message includes a survey of members’ availability to picket outside studio gates, New York offices and other key locations. SAG-AFTRA members have already been out in force on picketing efforts mounted by the Writers Guild of America, which went on strike May 2. Many rank-and-file SAG-AFTRA members are fired up about issues on the table in this difficult season of Hollywood labor negotiations. By contrast, the Directors Guild of America has ratified a new three-year contract in a deal reached last month without much drama.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer SAG-AFTRA and the studios will keep talking beyond the midnight Friday contract deadline, as they remain at odds on issues like streaming residuals and artificial intelligence. The union has agreed to extend the contract to July 12. The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and SAG-AFTRA made the announcement in a joint statement just before 7 p.m. Friday. In a message to its membership, SAG-AFTRA said the leadership had decided unanimously to extend the contract “in order to exhaust every opportunity to achieve the righteous contract we all demand and deserve.”

UPDATED with joint statement: SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers agreed Friday to extend their current film and TV contract until July 12 to allow bargaining on a new deal to continue, both sides said this evening. The current contract had been set to expire tonight at midnight PT, after which it would have likely meant a second major Hollywood guild would be on strike against the studios.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer SAG-AFTRA negotiators are meeting again Friday with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, as the industry waits in nervous anticipation of a potential “double strike.” The contract expires at midnight, and the actors union could call a strike as soon as Saturday if no deal is reached. The actors would join the Writers Guild of America, which has been picketing outside the major studios since May 2. The two sides have been exchanging proposals over the last week, and SAG-AFTRA leaders have said publicly that the talks have been productive. But it’s still not clear whether enough progress has been made to get to a deal.

SAG-AFTRA’s negotiations for a new contract are making headway “in some areas” but not in others, Fran Drescher, the guild’s president, said in an interview today on ABC’s Good Morning America.  

With the news that SAG/AMPTP negotiations could push into next week, international acting unions are for the most part taking a cautious approach to supporting a potential actors strike.

EXCLUSIVE: After it emerged that over 300 actors had written to SAG-AFTRA leadership that they are “prepared to strike” if the guild doesn’t “get all the way there” during talks with the studios, the number of actors signing the letter has more than tripled overnight.

More than 300 actors including many big names have signed a letter to SAG-AFTRA leadership urging them to take a hard line in the negotiations for a new film and TV contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer A group of more than 400 actors — including Oscar winners Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence and Rami Malek — are urging SAG-AFTRA leaders to take a harder line as contract talks reach a critical point. The members sent an internal letter Tuesday to the union’s negotiating committee and the leadership. They emphasized that “we are prepared to strike if it comes to that.” “And we are concerned by the idea that SAG-AFTRA members may be ready to make sacrifices that leadership is not,” they continued. The contract expires on Friday, and the leadership has the power to call a strike as soon as Saturday if no agreement is reached.

Late-night comedy writers are facing “oblivion” if the Writers Guild loses its eight-week-old strike, according to late-night comedy writer and WGA negotiating committee member Greg Iwinski, a former writer for The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and Last Week Tonight with John Oliver.

SAG-AFTRA leaders painted a sunny picture of their ongoing negotiations in a video released over the weekend, saying the talks have been “extremely productive” and promising to reach a “seminal deal.” But according to multiple sources with knowledge of the dynamic in the negotiating room, the sides remain far apart on a range of key issues. With just a few days left before SAG-AFTRA’s current contract expires on Friday, some are privately predicting that talks will be extended beyond the June 30 deadline, though such a move has not formally been broached in the negotiating room with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

interview this past spring, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland told TheWrap that SAG-AFTRA’s leaders believe it could benefit actors if properly regulated so that performances and likenesses can’t be used without proper compensation and consent.If talks aren’t successful, SAG-AFTRA could end up joining WGA in a strike; members voted to authorize a strike ahead of contract talks earlier this month by an overwhelming 97%. If that happens, studios will face a strike by two separate guilds at once for the first time since 1960, when a double strike held by writers and actors led to the establishment of residuals for TV reruns.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer With less than a week to go before their contract expires, the leaders of SAG-AFTRA are striking an optimistic note about the progress of negotiations. In a video sent to members on Saturday, union president Fran Drescher and chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland say they hope to be able to achieve a deal with the studios. If they do, that would avert a “double strike,” in which performers would join the Writers Guild of America on picket lines outside the major studios. “I just want to assure you that we are having an extremely productive negotiations that are laser-focused on all of the crucial issues you told us are most important to you,” Drescher said. “We’re standing strong and we’re going to achieve a seminal deal.”

SAG-AFTRA leaders told their members today that the guild’s ongoing contract negotiations have been “extremely productive” and that they “remain optimistic” that a fair deal can be reached with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

Directors Guild of America announced on Friday evening that its members have voted to approve its bargaining agreement with Hollywood studios.Out of 6,728 votes received, 5,853 votes were in favor of ratification for a vote share of 87%. In a sign that more Hollywood creatives are getting involved with their unions, 41% of the 16,321 eligible DGA members voted, the highest turnout percentage ever for a DGA contract ratification vote and with an overall vote count higher than the 4,155 votes received by the Writers Guild during its 2020 ratification vote.

WGA Strong March and Rally for a Fair Contract is set to kick off at Pan Pacific Park, with the crowd marching along Third Street and Fairfax to wind down to the La Brea Tar Pits off Wilshire Boulevard, in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The neighborhood’s telltale smell of methane (all that buried oil has the unmistakable aroma of rotten eggs) was wafting strong through the open area of the Tar Pits where dozens of WGA staffers, sound, stage and lighting experts are busy setting up for the speechifying that is expected to begin around noon PT. About 1,000 writers and supporters set off from the Pan Pacific rally spot around 10:45 a.m. PT.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer SAG-AFTRA’s master contract with Hollywood’s largest employers is due to expire in two weeks, and negotiators who have been in bargaining talks since June 7 have a lot of proposals to work through before that deadline. The time crunch has raised the possibility that the union’s talks with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers could go past the June 30 deadline, according to multiple sources who asked not to be identified. The SAG-AFTRA board has the power to call a strike starting on July 1 if no agreement is reached. That would immediately shut down all film and TV production that has not already been halted by the writers strike.

Billy Ray and Todd Garner are back for Week 6 of the Writers Guild standoff on Deadline’s Strike Talk podcast. Click below to listen.

The Television Critics Association has officially cancelled its upcoming summer press tour as the WGA, DGA and SAG-AFTRA are at different points of negotiating new contracts with the AMPTP.

Voting is now underway for the ratification of the new DGA film and TV contract. Members were sent ballots tonight along with the memorandum of agreement, as well as an executive summary of the new deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. The tentative agreement was approved last night by the DGA national board, which unanimously recommended that members ratify it.  Voting must be completed by June 23.