AMPTP Disputes SAG-AFTRA’s “Misleading” Claims About Last Contract Offer Before Strike Began

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers is disputing SAG-AFTRA’s “misleading” characterization of its proposals before contract talks broke off and the actors’ strike began a week ago.

On July 17, SAG-AFTRA issued a chart entitled “SAG-AFTRA Negotiations Status as of July 13, 2023.” According to the AMPTP, “Substantial portions of that chart are misleading, either in the characterization of the Producers’ offer or in the omission of key details.”

To counter the guild’s chart (see it here), the AMPTP has issued one of its own (see it below), which provides the AMPTP perspective on each of the items noted in SAG-AFTRA’s chart. (The text in black is reproduced from SAG-AFTRA’s chart, while the text in red and blue represents the Producers’ additions).

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With respect to wages, for instance, the guild’s chart notes that it’s asking for an 11% increase in general wages in the first year of a new contract, and 4% raises in the second and third year. “Without an inflation-adjusted year-one wage increase,” the guild says, “members will be working for lower real wages in 2023 than they earned in 2020 and would likely still be working for lower real wages even in 2026.”

But the AMPTP claims that the guild’s chart “failed to mention” that the “Producers’ offer is historic by any measure. The last time the Union secured a general wage increase of 5% in any year was in 1988. Based on theatrical and television earnings in calendar year 2022, the Producers’ current offer would generate an additional $717 million in wage increases over three years. By comparison, in the 2020 negotiations, the wage increases secured by the Union generated approximately $305 million over three years. The Producers are offering more than double the wage increases offered in the previous contract. This doesn’t even take into account the outsized increases offered to several categories of employees, including an 11% increase in year one for background actors, stand-ins and photo doubles and increases for stunt coordinators under “flat deals” in television of 10% in year one, 6.5% in year two and 5% in year three. In total, the offer to SAG-AFTRA represents more than $1 billion in wage, pension & health contribution and residual increases.”

The AMPTP says that it’s been “clear from the outset that its goal is to arrive at a contract that is fair and equitable for SAG-AFTRA members. The offer that SAG-AFTRA walked away from on July 12 is worth more than $1 billion in wage increases, pension & health contributions and residual increases and includes first-of-their-kind protections over its three-year term, including expressly with respect to AI.”

With respect to the hot-button issue of artificial intelligence, the guild noted in its chart that the companies “failed to address many vital concerns, leaving principal performers and background actors vulnerable to having most of their work replaced by digital replicas.”

The guild also wants to “establish a comprehensive set of provisions to protect human-created work and require informed consent and fair compensation when a ‘digital replica’ is made of a performer, or when their voice, likeness, or performance will be substantially changed using AI.”

The AMPTP, however, says that the guild “failed to mention” that “the Producers agreed to establish a comprehensive set of provisions that require informed consent and fair compensation when a ”digital replica” is made of a performer, or when the performer’s voice, likeness, or performance will be substantially changed using AI. The Union did not respond to the Producers’ last counter regarding AI, so there is more work to be done in the area. We need a balanced approach based on careful use, not prohibition. Among other protections, the proposal provides that Producers:

● Must obtain a background actor’s consent to use a “digital replica” other than for the motion picture for which the background actor was hired. Producers told SAG-AFTRA they would agree to apply the same provisions that the Producers proposed would apply to performers, so that consent and separate bargaining for payment must take place at the time of use.

● Cannot use “digital replicas” of background actors in lieu of hiring the required number of covered background actors under the Agreement.

● Must obtain a performer’s consent to create a “digital replica” for use in a motion picture.

● Must obtain a performer’s consent to digitally alter the performance beyond typical alterations that have historically been done in post-production.

● Must obtain a performer’s consent and bargain separately for use of a “digital replica” other than for the motion picture for which the performer was hired.

● Producers told SAG-AFTRA they would agree to SAG-AFTRA’s proposal that consent to use a “digital replica” must include a “description of the intended use.” Likewise, consent to digital alterations must include a “description of the intended alterations.”

See the AMPTP chart here:

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