Nov
3,
2023
The AMPTP does not care about the working members of the entertainment field overall. As SAG-AFTRA has delivered another counter, AMPTP have opted to leave the table waiting, again.
SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher wants to know when the studio CEOs are coming back to the table to finalize a new SAG-AFTRA three-year contract to end the guild’s nearly four-month-long strike. Straight from her X account (formally known as Twitter) “TGIF! Let’s hope the amptp ceo’s resurface with a seal the deal counter!” said Fran Drescher this morning online.
The actors guild and the studios have been back in renewed negotiations since October 24. However, SAG-AFTRA says it hasn’t heard back from the AMPTP on its comprehensive counter proposal since October 28, nor have the studios responded to the guild’s latest AI proposal during the past two days. It feels like the studios have decided to take a nap, an extended vacation, a general FU to the entertainment workers in general. Fran Drescher’s use of social media has increasingly become a blunt object against the studios’ divisive tactics.
Much of the talks this past week have been between the SAG-AFTRA negotiating committee, its National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland and AMPTP boss Carol Lombardini and studio legal reps. The studio CEO Gang of Four — NBCUniversal’s Donna Langley, Warner Bros Discovery’s David Zaslav, Disney’s Bob Iger and Netflix’s Ted Sarandos — haven’t been in attendance as both sides go over finer points in the contract. Studio CEOs, we’re told, are on standby for either Zoom or in-person should their attendance be requested as talks continue today on the 113th day of the strike.
