We hoped a resolution would be found during Monday's latest round of negotiations, but the SAG-AFTRA strike is set to continue as the union responds to the AMPTP’s “Last, Best & Final” offer.
As expected, AI has remained the biggest sticking point for the actors union.
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers is reportedly attempting to secure AI scans for Schedule F performers — guild members who earn more than the minimum for series regulars ($32,000 per TV episode) and feature films ($60,000). The suggested clause would require studios and streamers to pay to scan the likeness of these performers, but SAG-AFTRA is determined to add a compensation for the re-use of AI scans, as AMPTP’s current offer would allow the studios and streamers to secure the right to use scans of deceased performers without the consent of their estate or SAG-AFTRA.
“This is one of the biggest reasons SAG did not accept the ‘last, best and final’ offer from the AMPTP. We could not allow that language to stand,” says THR's union-side source. “This is massive. Every A-, B-, C-, D- and E-lister — all the higher-paid performers — who think this is a minimum wage strike, they must know they are in this fight. They have to realize that this is about protecting them. This is their strike now when they realize what’s on the line. The people who launched the campaign to take a deal — they’d be f—ked if we took this deal with that in there.”
“We think it’s not just reasonable, but is absolutely vital to the sustainability of the performance industry,” the source added. “They can’t have that loophole to exploit performers. … [The Schedule F AI language in the AMPTP’s proposal] behooves them to have you dead, in that they need consent when you’re alive but not when you’re dead.”
As far as we know, the major bone of contention for the studios is still SAG-AFTRA asking for a 2% cut of streaming revenue, which company executives believe is simply not a realistic demand. The AMPTP claims that this would end up costing the companies more than $800 million per year and “create an untenable economic burden.”
A counteroffer was taken to the AMPTP on Monday, but it sounds like this is going to drag on a little longer (today marks the 117th day of the SAG-AFTRA strike).
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Mark Cassidy is a writer, photographer, amateur filmmaker, and Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic from Dublin, Ireland.