SAG-AFTRA and Hollywood’s studios and streamers have extended negotiations on their next film and television deal one more week, the parties disclosed on Friday.
The performers’ union and the Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers, which bargains on behalf of companies like Netflix and Paramount, issued a short joint press release noting that their talks would continue. Both remain under media blackout during the negotiations, which began Feb. 9.
The sides are racing against the clock as the AMPTP is set to begin negotiations with a separate union, the Writers Guild of America, on March 16. Still, if SAG-AFTRA and management do not reach a deal by then, they have made room in their schedules for an additional bargaining period ahead of the union’s deal expiring on June 30.
Industry observers are paying close attention to this year’s talks given that they are the first to take place since the union’s 118-day strike in 2023, which brought the industry largely to a halt as actors withheld their labor alongside striking writers.
While SAG-AFTRA does not typically disclose its bargaining priorities in public, it’s clear that boosting income will be a key objective. “People need their wages; they’re having a hard time qualifying for health care. They need cost-of-living, inflation [adjustments]. People need to make more money,” union president Sean Astin previously told THR.
Moreover, developments in generative AI have sparked significant concern among union performers. SAG-AFTRA chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland previously signaled that he would like to create conditions in the contract whereby synthetic performers such as Tilly Norwood would be just as expensive to use as human performers.
“In my opinion, if synthetics cost the same as a human, they’re going to choose a human every time,” Crabtree-Ireland said in January.
It’s also likely that the labor group, like the WGA and the Directors Guild of America, will be focused on maintaining the stability of its health plan following a downturn in work and amid rising health care inflation.
Whether a strike is a possibility is another question. Crabtree-Ireland hasn’t foresworn the possibility but has emphasized he doesn’t think another work stoppage will be necessary. “Bargaining contracts is a regular and orderly way for unions and companies to address our working relationships,” he and Astin wrote in a message to members in December. “It doesn’t have to be a dramatic process.”
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