SAG-AFTRA to Resume Talks With AMPTP

The actors are heading back to the bargaining table with the major Hollywood studios.

After pausing negotiations to make way for the WGA in March, SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP will resume talks on Monday morning as planned. The two parties are aiming to get a tentative deal done before the DGA steps up to bat on May 11. Both guild and union sources tell Deadline that they’re not far off from a deal, but a few key issues still need to be ironed out.

Among those are AI protections, which we hear executive director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland is being particularly bullish on. More specifically, he is so far not willing to agree to the AMPTP’s requested lengthier contract unless the studios will concede a bit more on artificial intelligence. A labor insider tells us that there’s likely a path, “but it’s not going to be easy.”

To be fair, as the source points out, the fact that Crabtree-Ireland has signaled privately that he’s open to a four-year deal at all is a strong indicator the parties can find a middle ground.

“[SAG-AFTRA’s] bottom line is going to be what it’s going to be,” the source said, and clearly a three-year deal is not it.

No telling yet how the WGA’s deal, which leaders arrived to earlier this month quite swiftly and the membership ratified on Friday, will affect the actors’ talks. At this point a four-year deal is expected, given that’s what the writers conceded. That would mean both the actors and the studios giving up a year per their own proposals to meet in the middle.

The WGA made minor progress by way of residuals and minimum rate increases. That is, of course, because the guild had to address its struggling health plan. The funds were nearing insolvency after years of declining employment amid rising healthcare costs as the industry continues to weather a downturn in global production. SAG-AFTRA’s needs are not as great in that area, but they do exist. We understand that’s likely to mean a similar outcome here. We hear for both SAG-AFTRA and the DGA’s contracts there will be a greater emphasis on pension funding compared to the WGA’s.

Then there’s AI. Since it seems SAG-AFTRA has made that topic a cornerstone of its willingness to compromise on deal length, that could mean that the AMPTP concedes a bit further. The writers got the studios to agree to alert the union if a studio licenses writers’ work for AI training and continue holding meetings with the union on implementation. It does not establish any pay for writers for AI training.