News Analysis India

Tag: SAG AFTRA strike

  • SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher reacts to Hollywood studios breaking off negotiations

    By Associated Press

    LOS ANGELES: Fran Drescher has steered the actors guild through its monthslong strike. On the heels of Hollywood studios abruptly breaking off talks with the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists this week, the actor and union president says she’s baffled and disappointed.

    The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers announced Wednesday that they had suspended contract negotiations, saying the gap between the two sides was too great to make continuing worth it and characterizing their offer as good as the one that recently ended the writers’ strike. Drescher told The Associated Press in a Thursday interview that she did not understand why negotiations collapsed but that her union’s resolve has not weakened. 

    The interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

    AP: Can you talk about what happened in your negotiations with the AMPTP?

    DRESCHER: They had given us a proposal package. We worked for like 36 hours on it. We brought it back to them. We walked them through it and they left and then called a few hours later and said, “We’re breaking negotiations.” So it’s not only baffling but wholly disappointing and counterproductive.

    I’ve never really met people that actually don’t understand what negotiations mean. Why are you walking away from the table? To what end do you hope that that will accomplish anything?

    And actually, my members are more pumped up than ever. They feel so insulted by this, so degraded by this and dishonoured by this that it’s like, “Fran, do not cave. Remain strong. Hold onto your resolve because this can’t be for nothing.”

    AP: Can you talk about the mood of the conversations before they broke off? Was there a sense that talks would be smoother after the studios reached a deal with the Writers Guild of America?

    DRESCHER: With the writers guild also, they broke negotiations with that too. So now that a contract has been agreed upon, everybody’s all warm and fuzzy. But at the time, I think it was very contentious. They don’t like to give away ice in winter.

    So I’ve never really dealt with this kind of affront, of indignation and a need to get their own way. I think that they’re very used to getting their own way. I think that the idea that we want to go into a pocket to compensate for the lack of income that we cannot get for our working members in a streaming model is just so repugnant to them. And they just feel like, “Who are we to want to get compensated the way we used to be? Who are we to think that we deserve to make an honest wage that meets inflation? Who are we to challenge them in any way? We should be so lucky to get whatever they want because they’re the bosses.”

    And I keep pointing out to them that that kind of business practice is unsustainable nowadays. It was maybe something that people bought into in the 20th century. But that “dog eat dog, the bottom line is the bottom line,” it just doesn’t pan out. And we can’t think that way anymore. You can’t go into a whole new business and not question how this is going to impact the foundational contributors to your business. And that’s exactly what they did. And now they’re like annoyed at us for pointing out the problem.

    It’s really like an alternate universe. I can’t even believe it. And I keep trying to put it into a global context that they have a responsibility to workers. They’re leaders in the industry. They should set an example for industries around the world. This is their opportunity as well to raise the bar on how employers deal with workers. How they thank them, how they include them, how they treat them like people.

    AP: This will officially be the longest strike in your guild’s history next week. What are your thoughts on how we got here?

    DRESCHER: Well, I think it’s indicative of the fact that they stopped talking to us back on July 12 and didn’t come back until less than 10 days ago. You know, we’ve only met with them a couple of times. Monday, half a day Wednesday, half a day Friday. That was what they were available for. Then this past week, it was Monday and a half a day on Wednesday. And then “Bye-bye.”

    I don’t even know what they’re thinking. But I did say to them, “With all due respect, we have been waiting for you to come back.” We wanted to avert a strike. We extended an unprecedented extension and we called them in the eleventh hour. … They don’t really want to negotiate. They just want us to like what they want us to like. They don’t want us to have a mind. They don’t want us to have a thought. They don’t want us to have feelings or complain that we can’t make a living and we can’t support our families and we’re having problems paying the rent.

    They don’t want to hear about it because they keep giving us this huge inflated number of how much they’re spending on production and how much they’re paying out to our union in salary. But it’s all divided up amongst so many thousands of people that it doesn’t add up to anything except for our highest-paying earners, which I have zero problem with. And we’re fighting for them as well with AI. They’re very concerned about their likeness, their essence of being. The thing that makes them a star is going to be ripped off, going to be turned into something that’s hardly even recognizable.

    AP: So, what now?

    DRESCHER: Well, they called and said, “We’re walking away. We’re breaking negotiations.” Now, we’re in the midst of a serious negotiating committee meeting. Everybody went out on the picket lines today (Thursday). The resolve is very strong.

    So I think that they think that we’re going to cower, but that’s never going to happen because this is a crossroads and we must stay on course. Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp

    LOS ANGELES: Fran Drescher has steered the actors guild through its monthslong strike. On the heels of Hollywood studios abruptly breaking off talks with the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists this week, the actor and union president says she’s baffled and disappointed.

    The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers announced Wednesday that they had suspended contract negotiations, saying the gap between the two sides was too great to make continuing worth it and characterizing their offer as good as the one that recently ended the writers’ strike. Drescher told The Associated Press in a Thursday interview that she did not understand why negotiations collapsed but that her union’s resolve has not weakened. 

    The interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    AP: Can you talk about what happened in your negotiations with the AMPTP?

    DRESCHER: They had given us a proposal package. We worked for like 36 hours on it. We brought it back to them. We walked them through it and they left and then called a few hours later and said, “We’re breaking negotiations.” So it’s not only baffling but wholly disappointing and counterproductive.

    I’ve never really met people that actually don’t understand what negotiations mean. Why are you walking away from the table? To what end do you hope that that will accomplish anything?

    And actually, my members are more pumped up than ever. They feel so insulted by this, so degraded by this and dishonoured by this that it’s like, “Fran, do not cave. Remain strong. Hold onto your resolve because this can’t be for nothing.”

    AP: Can you talk about the mood of the conversations before they broke off? Was there a sense that talks would be smoother after the studios reached a deal with the Writers Guild of America?

    DRESCHER: With the writers guild also, they broke negotiations with that too. So now that a contract has been agreed upon, everybody’s all warm and fuzzy. But at the time, I think it was very contentious. They don’t like to give away ice in winter.

    So I’ve never really dealt with this kind of affront, of indignation and a need to get their own way. I think that they’re very used to getting their own way. I think that the idea that we want to go into a pocket to compensate for the lack of income that we cannot get for our working members in a streaming model is just so repugnant to them. And they just feel like, “Who are we to want to get compensated the way we used to be? Who are we to think that we deserve to make an honest wage that meets inflation? Who are we to challenge them in any way? We should be so lucky to get whatever they want because they’re the bosses.”

    And I keep pointing out to them that that kind of business practice is unsustainable nowadays. It was maybe something that people bought into in the 20th century. But that “dog eat dog, the bottom line is the bottom line,” it just doesn’t pan out. And we can’t think that way anymore. You can’t go into a whole new business and not question how this is going to impact the foundational contributors to your business. And that’s exactly what they did. And now they’re like annoyed at us for pointing out the problem.

    It’s really like an alternate universe. I can’t even believe it. And I keep trying to put it into a global context that they have a responsibility to workers. They’re leaders in the industry. They should set an example for industries around the world. This is their opportunity as well to raise the bar on how employers deal with workers. How they thank them, how they include them, how they treat them like people.

    AP: This will officially be the longest strike in your guild’s history next week. What are your thoughts on how we got here?

    DRESCHER: Well, I think it’s indicative of the fact that they stopped talking to us back on July 12 and didn’t come back until less than 10 days ago. You know, we’ve only met with them a couple of times. Monday, half a day Wednesday, half a day Friday. That was what they were available for. Then this past week, it was Monday and a half a day on Wednesday. And then “Bye-bye.”

    I don’t even know what they’re thinking. But I did say to them, “With all due respect, we have been waiting for you to come back.” We wanted to avert a strike. We extended an unprecedented extension and we called them in the eleventh hour. … They don’t really want to negotiate. They just want us to like what they want us to like. They don’t want us to have a mind. They don’t want us to have a thought. They don’t want us to have feelings or complain that we can’t make a living and we can’t support our families and we’re having problems paying the rent.

    They don’t want to hear about it because they keep giving us this huge inflated number of how much they’re spending on production and how much they’re paying out to our union in salary. But it’s all divided up amongst so many thousands of people that it doesn’t add up to anything except for our highest-paying earners, which I have zero problem with. And we’re fighting for them as well with AI. They’re very concerned about their likeness, their essence of being. The thing that makes them a star is going to be ripped off, going to be turned into something that’s hardly even recognizable.

    AP: So, what now?

    DRESCHER: Well, they called and said, “We’re walking away. We’re breaking negotiations.” Now, we’re in the midst of a serious negotiating committee meeting. Everybody went out on the picket lines today (Thursday). The resolve is very strong.

    So I think that they think that we’re going to cower, but that’s never going to happen because this is a crossroads and we must stay on course. Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp

  • Hollywood studios break off strike talks with actors, who slam ‘bullying tactics’

    By Associated Press

    LOS ANGELES: Talks bitterly broke off between Hollywood actors and studios late Wednesday, killing any hopes that the three-month strike by performers would come to an end anytime soon.

    The studios announced that they had suspended contract negotiations, saying the gap between the two sides was too great to make continuing worth it, despite an offer they said was as good as the one that recently ended the writers strike. The actors union decried their opponents’ “bullying tactics” and said they were wildly mischaracterizing their offers.

    “We made big moves in their direction that have just been ignored and not responded to,” Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the national executive director and chief negotiator for the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists had resumed negotiations, told The Associated Press on a Los Angeles picket line Thursday. “We’re not going to find a solution to this if they just leave and don’t talk to us.”  

    On Oct. 2, for the first time since the strike began July 14, SAG-AFTRA had resumed negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents studios, streaming services and production companies in strike talks.

    When negotiations resumed with writers last month, their strike ended five days later, but similar progress was not made with the actors union.

    The studios walked away from talks after seeing the actors’ most recent proposal on Wednesday.

    “It is clear that the gap between the AMPTP and SAG-AFTRA is too great, and conversations are no longer moving us in a productive direction,” the AMPTP said in a statement.

    The SAG-AFTRA proposal would cost companies an additional $800 million a year and create “an untenable economic burden,” the statement said.

    In a letter to members sent early Thursday, SAG-AFTRA said that figure was overestimated by 60%.

    “We went into those rooms with our own open mind and a goal of establishing a dialogue with those CEOs. We were very happy they were there because here are ultimate decision-makers who have the power to say yes,” Crabtree-Ireland said.

    “We gave them a full set of counterproposals yesterday. We made changes to our AI proposal. We made dramatic changes to what used to be our streaming revenue share proposal. We took it out of revenue share completely at their insistence.”

    The union said its negotiators were “profoundly disappointed” the studios had broken off talks.

    “We have negotiated with them in good faith,” the letter read, “despite the fact that last week they presented an offer that was, shockingly, worth less than they proposed before the strike began.”Actors have been on strike over issues including increases in pay for streaming programming and control of the use of their images generated by artificial intelligence.

    The AMPTP insisted its offers had been as generous as the deals that brought an end to the writers strike and brought a new contract to the directors guild earlier this year.

    But the union letter to actors said the companies “refuse to protect performers from being replaced by AI, they refuse to increase your wages to keep up with inflation, and they refuse to share a tiny portion of the immense revenue YOUR work generates for them.”

    “There is a laundry list of gaslighting that’s going on in the way this is being communicated by them,” Crabtree-Ireland said. “It’s not how you treat someone with respect in negotiations. It’s pressure tactics and bullying.”

    Actors and writers showed up to picket outside of the Netflix offices on Thursday. They were joined by Crabtree-Ireland and other SAG-AFTRA negotiating committee members who shared words of encouragement and resilience with their fellow union members.

    “We’re all sticking together,” said Cisco Reyes, a member since 1999, outside Netflix. “Our negotiators are not just settling for less.”

    Individuals on the picket lines still remained hopeful that they will win and reach a future agreement with the AMPTP.

    “There’s a little bit of anger, there’s a little bit of frustration, but there’s a lot of hope coming out here at the picket line,” actor Romel De Silva, a member since 2012, said Thursday outside Paramount Studios. “It’s important for us to be out here every single day and show them that we’re not backing down.”

    From the start, the actors talks had nothing like the momentum that spurred marathon night-and-weekend sessions in the writers strike and brought that work stoppage to an end. Actors and studios had taken several days off after resuming, and there were no reports of meaningful progress despite direct involvement from the heads of studios including Disney and Netflix as there had been in the writers strike.

    The writers did have their own false start in negotiations, however. A month before the successful talks, the initial attempt to restart ended after just a few days.

    Members of the Writers Guild of America voted almost unanimously to ratify their new contract on Monday. WGA leaders touted their deal as achieving most of what they had sought when they went on strike nearly five months earlier. They declared their strike over, and sent writers back to work, on Sept. 26.

    Some WGA members went back to the picket lines Thursday in solidarity with the actors, including Tommy Pico, a member since 2020 who remembered the support from actors when writers went on strike first. Pico said that the AMPTP could put an end to the strike “right now.”

    “They absolutely have the ability, they have the means, they have the opportunity and they are not,” Pico said. “I feel like it’s a power move.”

    Late-night talk shows have returned to the air, and other shows including “Saturday Night Live” will soon follow. But with no actors, production on scripted shows and movies will stay on pause indefinitely.

    “Whatever differences we have are only going to get resolved by talking to each other,” Crabtree-Ireland said. “We’re ready. We’re at the table. All they have to do is come back.” Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp

    LOS ANGELES: Talks bitterly broke off between Hollywood actors and studios late Wednesday, killing any hopes that the three-month strike by performers would come to an end anytime soon.

    The studios announced that they had suspended contract negotiations, saying the gap between the two sides was too great to make continuing worth it, despite an offer they said was as good as the one that recently ended the writers strike. The actors union decried their opponents’ “bullying tactics” and said they were wildly mischaracterizing their offers.

    “We made big moves in their direction that have just been ignored and not responded to,” Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the national executive director and chief negotiator for the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists had resumed negotiations, told The Associated Press on a Los Angeles picket line Thursday. “We’re not going to find a solution to this if they just leave and don’t talk to us.”  googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2′); });

    On Oct. 2, for the first time since the strike began July 14, SAG-AFTRA had resumed negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents studios, streaming services and production companies in strike talks.

    When negotiations resumed with writers last month, their strike ended five days later, but similar progress was not made with the actors union.

    The studios walked away from talks after seeing the actors’ most recent proposal on Wednesday.

    “It is clear that the gap between the AMPTP and SAG-AFTRA is too great, and conversations are no longer moving us in a productive direction,” the AMPTP said in a statement.

    The SAG-AFTRA proposal would cost companies an additional $800 million a year and create “an untenable economic burden,” the statement said.

    In a letter to members sent early Thursday, SAG-AFTRA said that figure was overestimated by 60%.

    “We went into those rooms with our own open mind and a goal of establishing a dialogue with those CEOs. We were very happy they were there because here are ultimate decision-makers who have the power to say yes,” Crabtree-Ireland said.

    “We gave them a full set of counterproposals yesterday. We made changes to our AI proposal. We made dramatic changes to what used to be our streaming revenue share proposal. We took it out of revenue share completely at their insistence.”

    The union said its negotiators were “profoundly disappointed” the studios had broken off talks.

    “We have negotiated with them in good faith,” the letter read, “despite the fact that last week they presented an offer that was, shockingly, worth less than they proposed before the strike began.”
    Actors have been on strike over issues including increases in pay for streaming programming and control of the use of their images generated by artificial intelligence.

    The AMPTP insisted its offers had been as generous as the deals that brought an end to the writers strike and brought a new contract to the directors guild earlier this year.

    But the union letter to actors said the companies “refuse to protect performers from being replaced by AI, they refuse to increase your wages to keep up with inflation, and they refuse to share a tiny portion of the immense revenue YOUR work generates for them.”

    “There is a laundry list of gaslighting that’s going on in the way this is being communicated by them,” Crabtree-Ireland said. “It’s not how you treat someone with respect in negotiations. It’s pressure tactics and bullying.”

    Actors and writers showed up to picket outside of the Netflix offices on Thursday. They were joined by Crabtree-Ireland and other SAG-AFTRA negotiating committee members who shared words of encouragement and resilience with their fellow union members.

    “We’re all sticking together,” said Cisco Reyes, a member since 1999, outside Netflix. “Our negotiators are not just settling for less.”

    Individuals on the picket lines still remained hopeful that they will win and reach a future agreement with the AMPTP.

    “There’s a little bit of anger, there’s a little bit of frustration, but there’s a lot of hope coming out here at the picket line,” actor Romel De Silva, a member since 2012, said Thursday outside Paramount Studios. “It’s important for us to be out here every single day and show them that we’re not backing down.”

    From the start, the actors talks had nothing like the momentum that spurred marathon night-and-weekend sessions in the writers strike and brought that work stoppage to an end. Actors and studios had taken several days off after resuming, and there were no reports of meaningful progress despite direct involvement from the heads of studios including Disney and Netflix as there had been in the writers strike.

    The writers did have their own false start in negotiations, however. A month before the successful talks, the initial attempt to restart ended after just a few days.

    Members of the Writers Guild of America voted almost unanimously to ratify their new contract on Monday. WGA leaders touted their deal as achieving most of what they had sought when they went on strike nearly five months earlier. They declared their strike over, and sent writers back to work, on Sept. 26.

    Some WGA members went back to the picket lines Thursday in solidarity with the actors, including Tommy Pico, a member since 2020 who remembered the support from actors when writers went on strike first. Pico said that the AMPTP could put an end to the strike “right now.”

    “They absolutely have the ability, they have the means, they have the opportunity and they are not,” Pico said. “I feel like it’s a power move.”

    Late-night talk shows have returned to the air, and other shows including “Saturday Night Live” will soon follow. But with no actors, production on scripted shows and movies will stay on pause indefinitely.

    “Whatever differences we have are only going to get resolved by talking to each other,” Crabtree-Ireland said. “We’re ready. We’re at the table. All they have to do is come back.” Follow The New Indian Express channel on WhatsApp

  • Striking Hollywood writers, studios to resume negotiations next week

    By Associated Press

    LOS ANGELES: Contract talks that could end Hollywood’s writers strike are set to resume next week, studios said Thursday.

    The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the industry’s studios, streaming services and production companies in union negotiations, said in a statement that they had reached out to the Writers Guild of America on Wednesday and the two sides agreed to resume negotiations next week.

    Leaders are still working out the details, the statement said, and no further specifics were provided.

    “Every member company of the AMPTP is committed and eager to reach a fair deal, and to working together with the WGA to end the strike,” the statement said.

    There are no talks yet planned to settle the actors’ strike.

    Writers have been on strike for 4 1/2 months over issues including pay, job security and regulating the use of artificial intelligence.

    A previous attempt to restart talks fell flat. The two sides had a handful of meetings in mid-August, including one that included the heads of Disney, Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery.

    But writers said that after exchanging contract proposals, “they were met with a lecture about how good their single and only counteroffer was,” and the talks trailed off.

    California lawmakers on Thursday voted to allow striking workers to claim unemployment benefits.

    If signed by Newsom, the bill would benefit Southern California hotel workers along with the striking actors and screenwriters.

    But it’s not clear if Newsom will sign it. The fund California uses to pay unemployment benefits is insolvent. Business groups have said making more people eligible for benefits will only make it worse.

    LOS ANGELES: Contract talks that could end Hollywood’s writers strike are set to resume next week, studios said Thursday.

    The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the industry’s studios, streaming services and production companies in union negotiations, said in a statement that they had reached out to the Writers Guild of America on Wednesday and the two sides agreed to resume negotiations next week.

    Leaders are still working out the details, the statement said, and no further specifics were provided.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2′); });

    “Every member company of the AMPTP is committed and eager to reach a fair deal, and to working together with the WGA to end the strike,” the statement said.

    There are no talks yet planned to settle the actors’ strike.

    Writers have been on strike for 4 1/2 months over issues including pay, job security and regulating the use of artificial intelligence.

    A previous attempt to restart talks fell flat. The two sides had a handful of meetings in mid-August, including one that included the heads of Disney, Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery.

    But writers said that after exchanging contract proposals, “they were met with a lecture about how good their single and only counteroffer was,” and the talks trailed off.

    California lawmakers on Thursday voted to allow striking workers to claim unemployment benefits.

    If signed by Newsom, the bill would benefit Southern California hotel workers along with the striking actors and screenwriters.

    But it’s not clear if Newsom will sign it. The fund California uses to pay unemployment benefits is insolvent. Business groups have said making more people eligible for benefits will only make it worse.

  • Popular daytime talk shows in US to resume production ignoring writers strike

    By Online Desk

    After a five-month shooting break following the strike by the Writers Guild of America, several daytime American talk shows are preparing to resume their production this fall. 

    CBS’ “The Drew Barrymore Show” hosted by actor Drew Barrymore has already confirmed that they will resume the show. Their other talk shows — “The Talk”, “Sherri”, as well as Warner Bros’ “The Jennifer Hudson” show — are all rumoured to be returning to production.

    Production of talk shows was on halt due to the ongoing labour dispute between the writers of Hollywood with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). The strike has shut down the production of hundreds of TV shows, and films over the past five months.

    Earlier, Barrymore received criticism from striking writers, their union, and the public after announcing that she would resume the production of her talk show without WGA writers. “I am … making the choice to come back for the first time in this strike for our show, which may have my name on it but this is bigger than just me,” she wrote on her Instagram.

    Following the news, the writers picketed outside the CBS studio on Monday. 

    As per The Hollywood Reporter, “The Talk”, “The Jennifer Hudson Show”, and Sherri are all set to begin their shoot within weeks.

    According to them, even though all these shows are signatories to the WGA’s minimum basic agreement, they have all planned to go ahead with the production without writers from the WGA. 

    After a five-month shooting break following the strike by the Writers Guild of America, several daytime American talk shows are preparing to resume their production this fall. 

    CBS’ “The Drew Barrymore Show” hosted by actor Drew Barrymore has already confirmed that they will resume the show. Their other talk shows — “The Talk”, “Sherri”, as well as Warner Bros’ “The Jennifer Hudson” show — are all rumoured to be returning to production.

    Production of talk shows was on halt due to the ongoing labour dispute between the writers of Hollywood with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). The strike has shut down the production of hundreds of TV shows, and films over the past five months.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });

    Earlier, Barrymore received criticism from striking writers, their union, and the public after announcing that she would resume the production of her talk show without WGA writers. “I am … making the choice to come back for the first time in this strike for our show, which may have my name on it but this is bigger than just me,” she wrote on her Instagram.

    Following the news, the writers picketed outside the CBS studio on Monday. 

    As per The Hollywood Reporter, “The Talk”, “The Jennifer Hudson Show”, and Sherri are all set to begin their shoot within weeks.

    According to them, even though all these shows are signatories to the WGA’s minimum basic agreement, they have all planned to go ahead with the production without writers from the WGA.