Hollywood Labor Unions Show Support For SAG-AFTRA Amid Suspended Negotiations, Urge Studios To “Make Meaningful Moves” Toward Contract

deadline.com:

The Hollywood labor unions are standing in collective solidarity with SAG-AFTRA after the guild’s latest negotiations with the studios went south this week. “Our members work side-by-side for the same handful of employers, and our unions and guilds collectively stand more united than ever,” read a joint statement issued Friday from the Writers Guild of America West (WGAW), Writers Guild of America East (WGAE), Directors Guild of America (DGA), International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE), American Federation of Musicians (AFM), Teamsters, and Hollywood Basic Crafts. “Each day a fair contract addressing actors’ unique priorities is delayed is another day working professionals across our industry suffer unnecessarily.

At this point, it should be clear to the studios and the AMPTP that more is needed than proposals which merely replicate the terms negotiated with other unions,” the statement continued. “We collectively demand the AMPTP resumes negotiations in good faith immediately, make meaningful moves at the negotiating table with SAG-AFTRA to address performers’ specific needs, and make the fair deal they deserve.” On Wednesday, the AMPTP declared that talks with SAG-AFTRA had been “suspended,” less than two weeks after the studios returned to the negotiating table with the guild.

The studios collectively insisted that it was “clear that the gap between the AMPTP and SAG-AFTRA is too great, and conversations are no longer moving us in a productive direction.” It didn’t take long for SAG-AFTRA to issue a statement of its own, accusing the AMPTP of “bully tactics” and “the same failed strategy they tried to inflict on the WGA” to cripple the deliberations.