© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Members of SAG-AFTRA and the Writers Guild of America walk in a picket line outside Paramount Studios in Los Angeles, California, US, June 7, 2023 REUTERS/Mike Blake/File photo
By Lisa Richwin
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – The Hollywood Actors Guild and major Hollywood studios agreed on Friday to continue negotiations through mid-July to avert the immediate threat of a second entertainment industry strike this summer.
SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) said they would extend their existing contract, which was set to expire at midnight, through July 12.
The agreement gives the two sides more time to reach a deal and prevent work stoppages that would have added to Hollywood’s ongoing labor struggle. Members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) left the job on May 2, forcing the closure of several film and television productions.
A-list stars including Jennifer Lawrence and Meryl Streep said in a letter to union leadership this week that they are willing to quit the job if negotiators fail to reach a “transformative agreement” on higher base pay and guarantees around the use of AI. (AI).
The letter came days after union negotiators released a video in which he said their talks had been “very productive,” a possible hint that a deal was in the works.
In a letter to members on Friday, the SAG-Oftra negotiators unanimously agreed to extend the contract “in order to exhaust every opportunity to realize the righteous contract that we all demand and deserve.”
“No one should mistake this extension for a weakness,” they said.
SAG-AFTRA voted in early June to give its leaders the power to call a halt to work if talks break down.
The negotiations were taking place at a difficult time for Hollywood studios. The conglomerates are under pressure from Wall Street to make streaming services profitable after pouring billions of dollars into programming to attract subscribers.
The rise of broadcasting has eroded television advertising revenues as traditional television audiences have shrunk.
The walkout of 11,500 writers halted a wide range of TV productions and delayed filming of films including Marvel’s Thunderbolts and Blade. Any ongoing filming would have to stop if the actors also took a beating.
Leaders of SAG-AFTRA, which represents 160,000 actors, and the WGA say the entertainment industry has changed dramatically with the advent of broadcast television and the advent of technology such as generative artificial intelligence, which they fear could be used to write scripts or create digital actors.
AMPTP, which is negotiating on behalf of the studios, declined to comment on its talks with SAG-AFTRA. The two sides agreed to continue negotiating without discussing the talks with the media, according to a joint statement issued on Friday.
With the book, AMPTP said it offered “generous” pay increases but could not agree to all of the book’s demands. The studios and the WGA have not held talks since the writers’ strike began on May 2.
The WGA strike hit food service providers, prop suppliers and other small businesses that derive a large portion of their income from Hollywood productions. The last writers’ strike in 2007 and 2008 cost the California economy an estimated $2.1 billion.
