SAG-AFTRA Agrees to Mediation but Won’t Extend Contract Deadline
variety.comGene Maddaus Senior Media Writer SAG-AFTRA has agreed to a last-minute call for federal mediation of its contract, but indicated it will not extend its deadline for deciding whether to go on strike beyond Wednesday at midnight.
That would appear to leave relatively little time for a mediator to avert a strike, which could begin as soon as Thursday morning.
In a statement on Tuesday afternoon, the union emphasized that “time is running out” and made clear that relations between the two sides have become extremely strained. “The AMPTP has abused our trust and damaged the respect we have for them in this process,” the union said. “We will not be manipulated by this cynical ploy to engineer an extension when the companies have had more than enough time to make a fair deal.” The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers proposed calling in the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service to help broker an agreement.
Disney’s Dana Walden and Alan Bergman, Warner Bros. Discovery’s David Zaslav, Netflix’s Ted Sarandos and Apple’s Zack Van Amburg, held conference calls on Monday at which they approved the plan to seek mediation.
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