A new deal for the Screen Actors Guild remained out of reach Thursday night, with SAG and the congloms continuing talks into the evening for a third consecutive day.
Speculation emerged Thursday that the date of termination for the contract has become the key point of contention at the talks, held at the Sherman Oaks headquarters of the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers. Neither SAG nor AMPTP had any comment as both sides continued to adhere to a news blackout.
The producers group would likely prefer that SAG agree to a deal that would expire around March 2012 -- a full three years after ratification. That's the traditional term and is designed to provide companies with some stability against industry volatility.
A three-year term would decouple SAG's termination date from the other Hollywood unions. Both the DGA and AFTRA primetime deals terminate on June 30, 2011, while the WGA's ends on May 1, 2011.
SAG's preference would probably be for a two-year-plus deal with a termination date of June 30, 2011. A shorter contract term would see annual salary increases amassed over a shorter period -- a scenario that's certain to be opposed by the congloms.
If the two sides can't reach a deal by this weekend, they probably will delay the talks until March. SAG execs are set to begin talks in New York on Monday with the ad industry on the SAG-AFTRA contract covering commercials.
Hollywood has been expecting that a tentative agreement would emerge from this round of talks after SAG's moderate coalition of board members ousted Doug Allen as national exec director, installed John McGuire as chief negotiator and replaced the negotiating committee -- which had been at an impasse with the majors for many months.
SAG's national board is scheduled to meet Saturday and could approve a tentative deal being sent to SAG's 120,000 members for ratification as early as next week, with a three-week period to return the ballots.
The Membership First faction, which strongly backed Allen but lost control of the guild's national board in the fall, staged a third day of picketing outside the negotiations site. Membership First is demanding that Allen be rehired, is seeking a strike authorization vote and is promising it will oppose any deal that emerges.
SAG members have been working without a contract since June 30, 2008.
Contact Dave McNary at
dave.mcnary@variety.com