Screen Actors Guild Completes First Meeting With Studios After Renewed Talks in Ongoing Strike

After a weeks-long break, SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) are back at the negotiating table. The two groups met Monday for the first time in nearly two weeks, with studio executives breaking talks off after a meeting on October 12th. The negotiations toward a new bargaining deal are set to continue Tuesday as the sides hope to hammer an agreement out.

“Today, the CEOs came back to the table. We are scheduled to continue talks with them tomorrow,” union officials shared on social media. “We will continue to provide updates with you directly. Remember – don’t believe anything you read in the press unless it comes directly from us. Keep showing up on the picket lines and make your voices heard around the country.”

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The last time the groups met at the table, SAG-AFTRA officials say they were presented with one of their lowest offers of the strike.

“We have negotiated with them in good faith, despite the fact that last week they presented an offer that was, shockingly, worth less than they proposed before the strike began,” SAG-AFTRA told the membership (via Variety). “These companies refuse to protect performers from being replaced by AI, they refuse to increase your wages to keep up with inflation, and they refuse to share a tiny portion of the immense revenue YOUR work generates for them.”

“The companies are using the same failed strategy they tried to inflict on the WGA – putting out misleading information in an attempt to fool our members into abandoning our solidarity and putting pressure on our negotiators,” the union told Variety. “But, just like the writers, our members are smarter than that and will not be fooled.”

Among key sticking points for the union is the usage of artificial intelligence, which studios are hoping to use more in a increasingly digital age.

“This ‘groundbreaking’ AI proposal that they gave us yesterday: they propose that our background performers should be able to be scanned, get paid for one day’s pay, and their company should own that scan their image, their likeness and should be able to use it for the rest of eternity in any project they want with no consent and no compensation,” SAG-AFTRA’s Duncan Crabtree-Ireland revealed at a press conference at the onset of the strike. “So if you think that’s a groundbreaking proposal, I suggest you think again.”

As of this writing, the SAG-AFTRA strike has lasted for 103 days.