With studios bearing the brunt of criticism since the SAG-AFTRA strike began last week, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) fired back in a statement released on Tuesday, July 18.
The studios’ representatives reiterated “a strike is not the outcome we wanted” and detailed what it claimed were its offers for a “mutually beneficial agreement” between AMPTP and SAG-AFTRA, using the performers’ union’s own words about a previous deal struck between the two Hollywood industry forces.
“Despite what SAG-AFTRA would have you believe today, at its ratification in 2020, the current SAG-AFTRA contract was hailed by SAG-AFTRA leadership as ‘the most lucrative deal we have ever negotiated…valued at $318 million over the three-year term of the contract,'” the producers contended.
“SAG-AFTRA further stated at the time that the deal ‘sets up for our long-term future…a forward-thinking agreement that builds on the changing realities of the streaming business,'” the AMPTP statement continued.
The group accused SAG-AFTRA of trying to “mischaracterize the negotiations with AMPTP” and “deliberately distort the offers made by AMPTP…offered…on July 12.” The producers claim the union “walked away” from a deal on July 12 “worth more than $1 billion in wage increases, pension & health contributions and residual increases” as well as “first-of-their-kind protections…expressly with respect to AI.”
At the outset of the strike, SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher slammed the AMPTP, claiming of the last-minute negotiations, “I cannot believe it, quite frankly, how far apart we are on so many things.”
She claimed, “How they plead poverty, that they’re losing money left and right, while giving hundreds of millions of dollars to their CEOs. It is disgusting. Shame on them.”
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