With less than a week to go before the union’s TV/theatrical contracts package expires, SAG-AFTRA leaders are assuring members that their negotiations with studios and streamers have been “extremely productive.”
In a video message sent to the union’s 160,000 affected members on Saturday, union president Fran Drescher and national executive director and chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland said that the talks had been “laser-focused on all of the crucial issues you told us are most important to you.” Drescher said in the update that “we’re standing strong and we’re going to achieve a seminal deal.” SAG-AFTRA’s current TV/theatrical contracts expire on June 30.
SAG-AFTRA has been negotiating with the Alliance of Film and Television Producers, which represents studios and streamers in labor negotiations, since June 7. With only three weeks and two days to make a deal (excepting a scenario in which both parties decide to extend their current contracts), and with the industry’s writers still out on a prolonged strike, the pressure has been on for labor and management to come together.
Acknowledging that both sides have a “very narrow window of time remaining,” Crabtree-Ireland said “we’ve all been working long and hard to move these talks forward and we remain optimistic that we will be able to bring the studios, networks and streamers along to make a fair deal that respects your contributions to this industry.”
The video, shot from a packed conference room at the Sherman Oaks headquarters of the AMPTP, where labor talks are underway, seemingly sought to allay concerns that SAG-AFTRA is definitely headed towards a strike, even after nearly 98 percent of voting members authorized a potential work stoppage prior to negotiations. If SAG-AFTRA ordered a strike once its contract expires on June 30, that would guarantee a shutdown of virtually all union physical production that is currently still ongoing amid the writers strike.
“We will keep you posted as events progress and until then, unity, solidarity and strength,” Drescher said with her fist raised, as the room’s team of negotiators broke out into cheers and applause.
The video, sent after the union’s tenth day of 2023 negotiations, came just three days after an appearance by Crabtree-Ireland at the “WGA Strong” rally in support of writers on strike. At that appearance, right after a SAG-AFTRA bargaining session, the union’s top negotiator assured writers that SAG-AFTRA members “will continue to be there by your side” as the strike continues.
