AMPTP: No talks with SAG

Majors dispute claim of 'informal' meetings

By CYNTHIA LITTLETON, DAVE MCNARY, DAVE MCNARY, DAVE MCNARY

Allen

Is it just more chatter, or are contract talks actually going on between SAG and reps for the majors?

The answer depends on whom you ask.

Screen Actors Guild national exec director Doug Allen said in an email message to members late Sunday that the guild has been engaging in "small group meetings and exchanges with the employers, their AMPTP representatives and a core group of leaders in both organizations."

But that’s news to the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, that org maintains. The AMPTP issued a statement Monday morning reiterating that there’s been nothing but radio silence between the sides on contract issues since they last met July 16, when the majors spurned SAG’s attempt to make a counterproposal. The AMPTP has refused to budge from its stance that the final offer it handed SAG on June 30, the day the previous contract expired, is no longer open for discussion.

"No meetings, formal or informal, regarding these negotiations have taken place since the sidebar SAG requested on July 16, and no meetings are pending," the AMPTP statement said.

The message from Allen came one day before SAG releases the final list of candidates for its upcoming board election. SAG’s dominant Membership First faction, led by prexy Alan Rosenberg, is facing a challenge for control of the board from the newly formed Unite for Strength coalition.

The timing of Allen’s email spurred speculation that it was designed to reassure members that SAG’s current regime has a strategy for ending the long impasse on the guild’s new three-year contract. Indeed, Allen’s email to members was far more positive on the possibility of the two sides reaching common ground than the guild’s other recent communications.

"Substantive progress is more likely in a less formal atmosphere," Allen’s email read. "Negotiators can talk more productively, exchange ideas and define a short path leading to a conclusion. Informal communication is routine in labor talks and, in fact, occurred in other guilds’ negotiations this year."

He also predicted that the full negotiating group that reps both sides probably will not need to meet across the table again until "we shake hands over a deal."

Allen listed the key issues as new media, product integration, force majeure, stunt performers and background actors’ issues. Allen did not cite an increase in DVD residuals, which has been a major issue for SAG and a big roadblock for the majors.

The absence of any reference to DVD coin led some to conclude that SAG was taking that issue off the table in an effort to prod the majors into renewed talks. However, insiders in both camps downplayed the significance of the omission.

Although SAG and AMPTP can’t even agree on whether there’s been any communication between them in recent weeks, the AMPTP’s statement indicated that it would be open to new discussions — under certain conditions.

"The AMPTP is always interested in exploring ways to reach an agreement, and if SAG has an approach that’s consistent with the parameters of our June 30 final offer, then we are open to hearing that," the org said.

The AMPTP’s statement acknowledged that the sides had been trying to sked a meeting to address grievance claims that SAG has filed against the majors. The AMPTP didn’t specify, but it’s understood that those claims are about payments owed to actors who were sidelined from their TV series gigs during the November to February writers strike.

SAG maintains that a large number of actors are owed significant coin, estimated at about $11 million, under the terms of force majeure provisions in their contracts. The majors have been trying to eliminate that force majeure language from SAG’s next contract, which has been one of the big hurdles in the SAG contract wrangling. The AMPTP wants to make force majeure protections something that individual thesps negotiate separately with their employers.

Industry observers believe the majors will eventually ease up on their opposition to paying off at least some of the force majeure bill from the writers strike, but not until the sides are close to signing an agreement.