SAG-AFTRA Negotiating Committee Addresses Top Actors’ Proposal, Urges AMPTP “To Negotiate Genuinely”

deadline.com:

As SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher took to Instagram Thursday night to thank George Clooney and other A-list actors for their “extremely generous” proposal which they hoped would help end the current impasse between the guild and the studios, the SAG-AFTRA negotiating committee also addressed the offer in a letter to the membership Thursday.

Similarly to Drescher’s video, the negotiating committee’s letter expressed gratitude to the top actors for their donations as well their “suggestions, in particular with regard to our streaming sharing proposal and the AMPTP‘s characterization that we are asking for too much.” The star-studded group had proposed to remove the cap on dues that would bring in $150M more over the next three years from the highest earning guild members and to adjust the mechanism of residual distribution. “This generous concept is worthy of consideration, but it is in no way related to and would have no bearing on this present contract or even as a subject of collective bargaining.

It is, in fact, prohibited by Federal labor law,” the negotiating committee’s letter said. “For example, our Pension and Health plans are funded exclusively from employer contributions.

It also doesn’t speak to the scale of the overall package. Having said that, their creativity and earnest desire to help solve the impasse are very much appreciated.” The letter went on to recap the evolution of SAG-AFTRA’s revenue sharing plan until the major media company CEO’s walked away from the negotiations last week and stressed that it is just one piece of the overall package proposal, calling out the studios for continuing “to refuse to counter many of our absolutely vital proposals including the minimum wage rates.” Noting that