The Screen Actors Guild on Thursday gave its most detailed explanation yet for its rejection of a final contract offer by Hollywood studios, citing shortfalls in pay and union jurisdiction on productions made for the Internet.
In a letter to SAG’s 120,000 members, Doug Allen, the guild’s executive director, said the offer would allow nonunion actors into “almost all new media productions for the foreseeable future.”
It said the producers’ offer also would leave out residual fees paid to actors for content that is made specifically for, and then retransmitted on the Web.
“A program originally made for ABC.com could be available for re-viewing on ABC.com ... as often as possible and forever with no residuals,” Allen wrote. “The stakes are too high to concede.”
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers responded with an equally detailed statement describing its Internet offer as “a major advancement” from the previous contract.
The producers have offered to mandate union coverage for Web shows that cost less than US$15,000 per minute, but only if a union actor is hired. Those costing more would also be covered, regardless of who is hired.
They also offered residual payments for Internet-only shows that are rebroadcast on pay platforms like iTunes, theatrically or on television. Paid downloads of movies would double the residual rate actors now receive from DVDs.
“Not a single one of these rights exists under the contract that expired on June 30 — a contract that SAG members now must work under because of the failure of SAG negotiators to make a deal,” the alliance said in a statement.
The producers have said a final offer they made June 30 was worth US$250 million in additional compensation over three years, an estimate the guild disputes.
The offer mirrors those accepted by writers, directors and the smaller actors union, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.
The producers alliance and the guild met on Wednesday for two hours, but did not reach a deal and scheduled no further meetings. The alliance has said it is not interested in counterproposals.
The producers said if their final offer is not ratified by Aug. 15, any proposed wage increases would not be made retroactive to July 1, potentially costing actors more than US$200,000 a day.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
UNREST: The authorities in Turkey arrested 13 Turkish journalists in five days, deported a BBC correspondent and on Thursday arrested a reporter from Sweden Waving flags and chanting slogans, many hundreds of thousands of anti-government demonstrators on Saturday rallied in Istanbul, Turkey, in defence of democracy after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu which sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in more than a decade. Under a cloudless blue sky, vast crowds gathered in Maltepe on the Asian side of Turkey’s biggest city on the eve of the Eid al-Fitr celebration which started yesterday, marking the end of Ramadan. Ozgur Ozel, chairman of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which organized the rally, said there were 2.2 million people in the crowd, but
The US government has banned US government personnel in China, as well as family members and contractors with security clearances, from any romantic or sexual relationships with Chinese citizens, The Associated Press (AP) has learned. Four people with direct knowledge of the matter told the AP about the policy, which was put into effect by departing US ambassador Nicholas Burns in January shortly before he left China. The people would speak only on condition of anonymity to discuss details of a confidential directive. Although some US agencies already had strict rules on such relationships, a blanket “nonfraternization” policy, as it is known, has
OPTIONS: Asked if one potential avenue to a third term was having J.D. Vance run for the top job and then pass the baton to him, Trump said: ‘That’s one,’ among others US President Donald Trump on Sunday that “I’m not joking” about trying to serve a third term, the clearest indication he is considering ways to breach a constitutional barrier against continuing to lead the country after his second term ends at the beginning of 2029. “There are methods which you could do it,” Trump said in a telephone interview with NBC News from Mar-a-Lago, his private club. He elaborated later to reporters on Air Force One from Florida to Washington that “I have had more people ask me to have a third term, which in a way is a fourth term