While the WGA Negotiates, SAG-AFTRA Waits
As news circulated that the WGA and AMPTP were returning to the negotiating table last week, SAG-AFTRA members were left wondering where that left them, and how it would affect their own strike. Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, SAG-AFTRA’s national executive director and chief negotiator, said that “we remain very eager to get back to the table with the AMPTP, as we’ve said every day” since the strike began last month.
The WGA’s reopening of negotiations with the AMPTP offers some hope to everyone, especially after the CEOs of the companies the AMPTP represents met on Friday to discuss the best way to end the writers’ strike, with the hopes of killing two birds with one stone.
“I’m curious,” said one actor, who requested anonymity because he didn’t want to speak publicly about the strike and potentially undermine the union’s mission, “what this means for us. We want a lot of the same things, right? So if the writers get a deal, does that mean one is going to come for us, too? Otherwise, what’s the point of all this?”
It’s a good question, and the short answer is that the SAG-AFTRA leadership is watching this very carefully. The WGA has some red lines that cannot be crossed if a deal is going to be made, many of which SAG-AFTRA shares, and there are now indications that the members of the AMPTP are wavering in their dedication to the proceedings. As it has become clear that both the writers and actors have dug in for the long haul, what began as confidence in the corporate executive suites has turned to low-grade panic, as previously established release slates start to shift uncomfortably.
Something else that happened last week that shines an interesting light on the situation is an editorial that ran on the website Deadline by former Fox Filmed Entertainment chairman and CEO Bill Mechanic. The producer and head of Pandemonium Films, who has produced Oscar-nominated movies like Hacksaw Ridge and Caroline, as well as the Oscar telecast itself, discussed the strike from the perspective of an independent producer and delved into the benefits of the interim agreements that have been so controversial, even within the SAG-AFTRA ranks.
As the conversation continues between proponents of the practice, so as to allow indie films to continue to shoot as competition for the members of the AMPTP, and the opponents, who believe that striking means literally not working at all, this outside voice has an interesting perspective.
After essentially saying that the issues between the two sides are entirely the fault of the studios, Mechanic writes, “Actors and writers should be focusing on ways to allow non-AMPTP companies to grow at the expense of the AMPTP companies,” essentially coming out firmly on the side of the interim agreements. His implication is that anything that can be done to lift up the companies that play by the SAG-AFTRA-established rules will help them all in the long run, adding that it is, “completely myopic to kill the business you’re in by shutting it down in its entirety, taking down the good with the bad.”
Now, it’s true that, as an independent producer not under the auspices or umbrella of the studios, Mechanic has a vested interest here. He also acknowledges that his company has applied for interim agreements to go into production with his own projects during the strike. That does not, however, affect the relevance of his opinion.
Mechanic, the insider’s insider, goes on to essentially confirm that the AMPTP members have lost their sense of safety in this whole affair, as well as the fact that the financial numbers the two unions are demanding will pale in comparison to the losses the AMPTP members will feel if the strike continues too long and there is a dearth of new content.
Mechanic confirms both of these theories and in the process urges the unions to continue to walk the picket lines while also working to support the union members’ interests. In the long run, he suggests, this will lead to victory.
The first clue as to whether or not that victory will happen sooner or later could become clear this week, with the WGA negotiations. Stay tuned.
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