SAG-AFTRA has set a date to begin talks with producers over a new contract.
The performers’ union set June 7 as the start date for negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, it said in a joint statement with the AMPTP on Thursday. The union’s current pact expires on June 30, and its talks were widely expected to begin earlier that month.
“Both the AMPTP and SAG-AFTRA are approaching this process as an opportunity to engage in thoughtful and interactive conversations that result in a mutually-beneficial deal,” SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP added in their statement.
The date positions SAG-AFTRA, the industry’s largest union, as the last major labor group to negotiate in a series of pivotal talks occurring this spring and summer. The Writers Guild of America has been locked in talks with studios and streamers since March 20 — negotiations that some in the industry fear could result in a strike, as the writers are looking to significantly increase compensation in the streaming era while many major Hollywood companies are conversely in cost-cutting mode. (WGA members are currently participating in a strike authorization vote that could grant union leaders permission to strike if they so choose once their contract expires on May 1.)
The Directors Guild of America is following the writers, with its talks beginning on May 10 prior to its June 30 expiration date. In its communications with members, the DGA has signaled that this round of talks will be pivotal and tricky — “one of the most difficult and complex we have faced in many years,” in the words of guild leaders, as studios and streamers remain in contraction mode in 2023.
SAG-AFTRA’s negotiations, which will be led by its national executive director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, are expected to be equally momentous. The union held wages and working conditions meetings, where the union solicited member feedback on topline issues, at the end of 2022 and through January in preparation for the talks, though so far, the union has been quiet about its priorities.
Though the WGA is typically considered the entertainment union most likely to strike, the upcoming DGA and SAG-AFTRA talks have also struck fear in some across the industry. “It’s not just the writers who could be going on strike,” one top entertainment attorney told The Hollywood Reporter in February, noting that major companies are stockpiling scripts and reviewing shooting schedules in anticipation.
