Over the past few days, various reports have emerged about a $150 million proposal that A-listers like George Clooney, Ben Affleck, Scarlett Johannson, Tyler Perry, and Emma Stone brought to SAG-AFTRA in hopes of accelerating the end of the actors’ strike. But on Thursday night, the guild issued a statement explaining why that well-intentioned offer simply wouldn’t work – and how it may actually be illegal for them to accept it.
To recap what was offered: the aforementioned actors and other big stars held a meeting with SAG-AFTRA on Tuesday to bring forward a proposal that would remove the $1 million cap on union membership dues. This, they proposed, would allow more money to flow into the guild directly from its top earners, and hopefully be allocated to areas like health and pension funds.
To hear it directly from Clooney, he broke it down to Deadline on Thursday: “A lot of the top earners want to be part of the solution,” he told the outlet. “We’ve offered to remove the cap on dues, which would bring over $50 million to the union annually. Well over $150 million over the next three years. We think it’s fair for us to pay more into the union.”
“We also are suggesting a bottom-up residual structure — meaning the top of the call sheet would be the last to collect residuals, not the first,” he went on. “These negotiations will be ongoing, but we wanted to show that we’re all in this together and find ways to help close the gap on actors getting paid.”
The offer is, no doubt, a generous one, but the guild rejected it on Wednesday, according to Variety. Both an Instagram video from SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher and official statements from the guild explained why. There's two main reasons, they laid out: one is that it's unrelated to the current contract negotiations, and the other is that the guild actually can't accept it legally, they say.
“Although that's extremely generous and we accept that graciously, that does not impact the contract that we're striking over whatsoever,” Drescher said after thanking Clooney directly. “We are a federally regulated labor union, and the only contributions that can go into our pension and health funds must be from the employer. So what we are fighting for in terms of benefits has to remain in this contract, and that's kind of apples and oranges.”
SAG-AFTRA’s official statement came in a long X (formerly Twitter) thread on Thursday night, which reiterated the points that Drescher made in regards to the proposal not being related to the contract they’re currently bargaining over. The concept, the guild said, is also “prohibited by Federal labor law,” providing the example that health and pension funds are covered exclusively from employer contributions.
We’re grateful that a few of our most successful members have engaged to offer ideas and support. Beyond donating extraordinary sums of money to the SAG-AFTRA Foundation in support of members during the strike, these influential individuals have sought to offer suggestions...4/21 pic.twitter.com/TEuW7LJ6Fq
— SAG-AFTRA (@sagaftra) October 20, 2023
This generous concept is worthy of consideration, but it is in no way related to and would have no bearing on this present contract or even as a subject of collective bargaining. 6/21 pic.twitter.com/BV1pPBXtad
— SAG-AFTRA (@sagaftra) October 20, 2023
The A-list proposal isn’t the only thing the guild addressed on Thursday night, however, also touching on the industry CEOs’ concerns with their proposed revenue/subscription streaming model.
The Sticking Point That Apparently Ended Negotiations
Talks between SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), the organization that negotiates for Hollywood’s studios, broke down on Oct. 11, with SAG-AFTRA saying that the AMPTP had walked away from the table.
Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos addressed this the following day, saying at a Bloomberg conference (per THR) that they left negotiations over a “levy” SAG-AFTRA proposed that would have streaming services share 2% of subscription revenue with the guild. This, he said at the time, “felt like a bridge too far to add this deep into the negotiation.” Sarandos brought up that proposal again while addressing the strike during this past Wednesday’s Q3 earnings call.
In the statement on Thursday night, SAG-AFTRA said they made a “calculated adjustment” after seeing the AMPTP’s concerns with that 2% share, dropping it to 1%.
“We did so, by restructuring our proposal, tailoring it to address their concerns,” SAG-AFTRA said. “They responded by walking out and calling us greedy.”
We are not asking for too much. As a faithful bargaining partner, and understanding their stated concerns with our 2% revenue/subscription sharing proposal, we made a calculated adjustment. 10/21 pic.twitter.com/SMAb5kHuS5
— SAG-AFTRA (@sagaftra) October 20, 2023
They continued to say that the revenue/subscription sharing model “is only one piece of our overall proposal package,” adding that the AMPTP has still refused to counter other “vital” measures like minimum wage increases.
Our revenue/subscription sharing model is only one piece of our overall proposal package. The AMPTP continues to refuse to counter many of our absolutely vital proposals including the minimum wage rates that our membership are on strike to achieve. 13/21 pic.twitter.com/p0ybOEo4CP
— SAG-AFTRA (@sagaftra) October 20, 2023
Negotiations between SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP have not yet resumed since falling apart earlier this month. While the WGA strike ended last month, allowing work on film and television scripts and development to ramp back up, production remains largely on hold with actors on the picket lines.
Thumbnail credit: Randy Shropshire/Getty Images for Entertainment Industry Foundation
Alex Stedman is a Senior News Editor with IGN, overseeing entertainment reporting. When she's not writing or editing, you can find her reading fantasy novels or playing Dungeons & Dragons.
