As Hollywood's labor stalemate
dragged into its third week on Tuesday, major studios said they
agreed to meet again with the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) but
would not budge from their "final" contract offer.
The studios' bargaining agent, the Alliance of Motion
Picture and Television Producers, said the session, requested
by SAG and set for Wednesday, "will be solely for the purposes
of listening to whatever SAG has to say."
"It is important to note that SAG has declined to specify
the purpose of the meeting," the producers group added,
describing the planned get-together as a "sidebar meeting"
consisting of a "small group of people from each side."
SAG, which has pressed the studios to reopen formal
contract talks, declined comment except to confirm that the two
parties planned to meet at 1 p.m. local time on Wednesday.
The contract at issue covers the work of 120,000 SAG
members in prime-time TV and movies, an industry still reeling
from a 14-week screenwriters strike that ended in February. A
strike by the actors is widely seen as unlikely, for now.
The old SAG contract expired hours after the studios
presented the union with their "final" offer as a
take-it-or-leave-it proposition on June 30.
SAG nonetheless delivered a counteroffer during a four-hour
meeting last Thursday that ended with the studios refusing to
give any ground and insisting that SAG submit the industry's
latest proposal to union members for a vote.
SAG leaders have so far been unwilling to do so, saying the
studios' offer -- mirroring terms endorsed last Tuesday by the
smaller American Federation of Television and Radio Artists in
a separate TV-only contract -- falls short in several areas.
SAG, for example, has sought higher residual payments for
actors from DVD sales and to extend its contract coverage to
all made-for-Internet programming, even low-budget productions
exempted under the AFTRA deal.
Word of yet another meeting between the parties came a day
after Hollywood's leading trade magazine, Daily Variety,
reported that SAG leaders may acquiesce in submitting the
studios' offer to the rank-and-file for ratification.
Such a move, which could be done without SAG leaders
recommending approval of the deal, would be up to the union's
national governing board, which is due to meet on July 26.
According to Variety, guild insiders have acknowledged they
have few options given the steadfast refusal of the studios to
continue bargaining.
So far, SAG leaders have played down the likelihood of
calling a strike, a move that would require a 75 percent vote
by members. Many industry watchers doubt SAG could muster the
support needed in light of lingering fatigue from the recent
writers' work stoppage and growing economic uncertainty.
Much of the entertainment industry already has slipped into
a de facto strike mode, as major studios have halted most of
their film productions to avoid costly labor disruptions. But
according to Variety, studios are now considering moving
forward with new film projects before a settlement is reached.
(Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)
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