SAG-AFTRA “Remains Very Eager” To Return To Bargaining Table With AMPTP

deadline.com:

Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, SAG-AFTRA’s national executive director and chief negotiator, said today that “we remain very eager to get back to the table with the AMPTP, as we’ve said every day” since the actors’ strike began 33 days ago.

In a virtual press conference with reporters about the guild’s interim agreements, Crabtree-Ireland said, “We have been ready, willing and able to continue bargaining with them and we very much want the AMPTP to come back to the table.” The Writers Guild, which has been on strike since May 2, resumed negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers on Friday, and Crabtree-Ireland said “we’re happy that they are back to the table with the Writers Guild this week.

Perhaps that is a sign for cautious optimism about the future of these agreements and hopefully an end to both strikes in the near future.” RELATED: SAG-AFTRA Modifies Interim Agreement Policy To Exclude WGA-Covered Projects Shot In The U.S. He noted, however, that “that remains to be seen, as there’s been no contact by the AMPTP to SAG-AFTRA.

But we certainly hope that they have come back to the table with the Writers Guild with the intent of making a fair, equitable and respectful deal for Writers Guild members, and that they’ll do the same with respect to SAG-AFTRA members.” The guild’s interim agreements contain the same deal points that SAG-AFTRA last offered to the AMPTP when talks broke off without an agreement on July 12. “The AMPTP companies — the studios and streamers — could have signed that exact deal on July 12 and there never would have been a strike,” Crabtree-Ireland told reporters this morning. “Interim agreements are an important part of our strategic approach to this negotiation,” he