Negotiators for actors and producers were immersed late Wednesday in intense discussions aimed at hammering out a new contract before their self-imposed deadline of 6 p.m. Thursday.
While the failure to reach an agreement now will not necessarily result in the first actors' strike in 18 years, it increases the chances and puts the industry on notice that the two sides are dangerously far apart. They will still have an opportunity to reach a consensus before the actors' contract expires June 30.
"Both sides are working very hard, getting down to the nitty-gritty," said someone close to the negotiations between the Screen Actors Guild/American Federation of Television & Radio Artists and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.
"The most likely scenario is that we won't know what's going to happen until Friday," said the source, who asked not to be identified. "These things can't be predicted. If you've got momentum, you go until the breaking point."
A nervous Hollywood awaited the outcome of the fast-track talks, which began Feb. 19 and have foundered on such issues as residuals for programs on basic cable and foreign outlets.
"The word I'm hearing is not encouraging," said Alan Brunswick, a lawyer who specializes in labor issues. "I hope the parties take advantage of the next three months to reach a deal, and the sooner the better."
The three-month walkout in 1980 "was a disastrous strike for the entire town," he said. "Lots of ancillary businesses that weren't even close to the bargaining table were hurt terribly."
It was after the '80 strike that the AMPTP instituted the fast-track negotiating approach, under which a decision was forced early during intensive talks "so that the town could keep working," Brunswick said. "It was designed to avoid strikes and to avoid de facto shutdowns of production."
However, film production has already been affected, with some projects either speeded up or postponed so that they are not struck by a walkout at the beginning of July.
Other organizations are equally apprehensive at the notion of a work stoppage by actors. "It would create disastrous circumstances for us," said Donn Cambern, president of the Motion Picture Editors Guild, whose contract with producers is not up until 2000. "This is a cyclic happening -- is there going to be a strike or not? But in the last several years you haven't had the kind of talk around town you hear now, this absolute firm positioning. It just seems there's a tremendous gap."
Cambern, who edited "Easy Rider," "Romancing the Stone" and "The Bodyguard," among other films, said the possibility of a strike is "very worrying to our membership." The industry's general prosperity recently has meant plenty of work for many film and sound editors, 4,700 of whom are in the editors' guild. But they are already beginning to feel the effect of the slowdown in production.
"Not only are they cutting back on pictures that can't be completed before June 30, but the TV shooting season classically starts in June for the following season, and that's in trouble too," Cambern said.
At the Assn. of Independent Commercial Producers, president Matthew Miller said a strike would be "a stumbling block" because the industry "is so healthy right now." While most commercials are covered by a separate contract negotiated by the Screen Actors Guild last summer, Miller said, "the industry depends on being healthy in all the disciplines."
"You don't like to see this kind of standoff," said Miller, whose guild represents about 85% of the commercials shot in the United States, at a cost last year of $4.5 billion. If there is a strike, Miller said, "there will be a lot of actors looking for work under a contract that's still valid."
Actors are not the only ones looking for a new contract. Negotiators for the Writers Guild of America met with producers on March 23 and are expected to meet again "in another week or so," said WGA West spokeswoman Cheryl Rhoden. "They'll probably continue right until the May 2 deadline."
Fortunately, the writers are not as far from reaching an agreement as the actors seem to be.
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