Update July 12 date 8:50pm CT: According to a new report, SAG-AFTRA has agreed to federal mediation, but as it stands the deadline will not be extended.
With the WGA writer’s strike now well into its third month, CEOs from Hollywood’s leading studios are joining together to discuss how they can avert an actors’ strike on top of this. SAG-AFTRA members going on strike would result in a near-complete shutdown of any remaining productions that had managed to continue throughout the writer’s strike and bring Tinsel Town to a grinding halt.
A month ago, SAG-AFTRA members voted overwhelmingly to go on strike if negotiations relating to issues such as residual pay from streaming platforms, an increase in the minimum wage, and the use of AI did not reach an agreeable conclusion. Negotiations have been underway for some time now and the initial deadline of June 30 already passed with both sides agreeing to a 12-day extension. However, time for The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers is running out as that extension ends at midnight, July, 12.
This has caused the major players to rush to avoid such measures which would cause a second shutdown in Hollywood. Disney chief Bob Iger, Warner Bros. Discovery’s David Zaslav, and Netflix’s Ted Sarandos, amongst others, held a conference call on Monday to discuss the issue and push for a federal mediator to come in as a neutral third party from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, via Variety. It is not yet known if SAG-AFTRA would even be open to this as it could mean pushing negotiations further and holding off on a strike that they appear well prepared for.
On top of bringing in a federal mediator, the heads of various talent agencies including Ari Emanuel of WME, Bryan Lourd of CAA, and UTA’s Jeremy Zimmer, have also offered their assistance to SAG-AFTRA to help facilitate an understanding that would keep a strike at bay. As it stands, economists predict that the writer’s strike alone will cost the local economy $3 billion according to a report from the Los Angeles Times. If we were to then add a SAG-AFTRA strike on top of that, well, that figure starts to increase drastically.
It has been reported that members of the union are ready to go on strike Thursday morning, with certain members being trained in how to be strike captains. Variety reports that sources close to the negotiations say that the AMTPT is becoming increasingly frustrated at SAG-AFTRA’s unwillingness to be flexible on matters, believing that a more extreme minority within the union is pushing its agenda without considering how a strike will affect it’s own members. Whether this is the case is unclear, as divide and sow doubt are certainly tactics used to break down opposition in these matters.
Whether this federal mediator will be able to swoop in on time to avert the strike is yet to be seen, but based on a phone call between SAG-AFTRA and major Hollywood publicists which took place on Monday preparing them for a strike, it sounds like nothing less than a miracle will stop them from joining WGA on the picket line come Thursday.