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UPDATED with statement, 10:10 AM: SAG-AFTRA and NPR today issued a joint statement about their ratification of a contract deal that averts a strike against the radio pubcaster: The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) and NPR are pleased to announce the ratification and signing of a new three-year contract covering NPR’s news and programming employees. The contract was ratified last week by an overwhelming majority of NPR’s SAG-AFTRA represented employees and then signed by SAG-AFTRA and NPR at NPR headquarters in Washington, D.C. on Monday, July 31. NPR and SAG-AFTRA have shared a long and productive relationship throughout the years. This was evident in the recent negotiations, as NPR and SAG-AFTRA’s bargaining teams worked tirelessly and constructively to find common ground. Today NPR and SAG-AFTRA together celebrate the tremendous talents of NPR’s news and programming teams and look forward to supporting NPR’s mission and … [Read more...] about SAG-AFTRA & NPR Ratify Strike-Averting Contract Deal – Update

If producers use artificial intelligence to simulate an actor’s performance, they’re going to have to bargain for it, SAG-AFTRA said Friday in a statement on the use of AI and digital doubling. “The terms and conditions involving rights to digitally simulate a performer to create new performances must be bargained with the union,” the guild said in a statement. “These rights are mandatory subjects of bargaining under the National Labor Relations Act,” the guild says. “Companies are required to bargain with SAG-AFTRA before attempting to acquire these rights in individual performers’ contracts. To attempt to circumvent SAG-AFTRA and deal directly with the performers on these issues is a clear violation of the NLRA.” The WGA has staked out a similar position . It its pattern of demands for its upcoming contract talks, which begin Monday, the writers guild seeks to “regulate use of material produced using artificial intelligence or similar technologies.” “Human … [Read more...] about SAG-AFTRA Says Use Of AI To Simulate Actors’ Performances Must Be Bargained For

SAG-AFTRA has reached a tentative settlement with the studios regarding unpaid Covid testing stipends. The stipends in question are for Covid testing payments on days when performers also were paid for fittings. In the Return to Work Agreement between the companies and Hollywood’s unions, actors and background performers who traveled outside their homes to take a Covid test on a day in which they did not work for the producer are entitled to be paid a testing stipend if they were not otherwise paid for the day. The Return to Work Agreement provides that “an employee or prospective employee, other than a background actor, who travels outside his/her home to undergo a test on a day in which the individual does not work for Producer shall receive a stipend of $250. A background actor shall receive a stipend of $100, which shall be subject to pension and health contributions only if the background actor is ultimately employed by the Producer following the test…However, no stipend is … [Read more...] about SAG-AFTRA & Studios Reach Tentative Settlement Over Unpaid Covid Testing Stipends

Leaders of SAG-AFTRA and Hollywood’s Teamsters Local 399 showed their support for the WGA on Monday, posing with WGA leaders shortly before the 11 a.m. start of the Writers Guild’s contract negotiations with producers at the AMPTP ’s headquarters in Sherman Oaks. “This is what solidarity looks like!” the WGA West posted on its Twitter page above a photo of the labor leaders. From left to right are David A. Goodman, former WGA West president and co-chair of the WGA’s Negotiating Committee; Lindsay Dougherty, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters Local 399; Ellen Stutzman, WGA chief negotiator and assistant executive director of the WGA West; Meredith Stiehm, president of the WGA West; Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, SAG-AFTRA’s national executive director, and Chris Keyser, former WGA West president and co-chair of the WGA Negotiation Committee. RELATED: As WGA & AMPTP Talks Kick Off, Details Emerge Of DGA’s Attempt To Reach Under-The-Radar Deal With Studios Day 2 of … [Read more...] about SAG-AFTRA & Teamsters Local 399 Leaders Show Solidarity With WGA At Opening Day Of Contract Talks

Members of the DGA have three weeks to vote on a new three-year deal its negotiating committee reached with the Alliance of Motion Picture and TV Producers late last month. Ratification packages were sent out this week to the 15,000 DGA members with a January 7, 2014 due date for returning ballots. “This ballot represents your highest responsibility as a Guild member and the core of why the Guild has existed and remained strong for over 77 years – to protect your economic and creative rights and freedoms. The Negotiations Committee and the Guild’s National Board unanimously – and enthusiastically – recommend that you vote YES for ratification of the Agreements,” said guild president Paris Barclay in an accompanying letter. In his first contract agreement as DGA boss, Barclay didn’t go soft on selling the deal to his members, playing up the wage increase provisions. “We successfully achieved critical gains for DGA members in a number of significant areas – the most … [Read more...] about DGA Sets January 7 Deadline For New Contract Vote

Yesterday my colleague Pete Hammond said there were “no surprises” in the DGA Awards Film nominees. Well, today the Directors Guild of America delivered even less of a shock as its members ratified the new three-year deal its negotiating committee reached with the Alliance of Motion Picture and TV Producers in late November (after you finish that yawn, read their release below). Same as three years ago , no specific numbers were given just that the approval was by an “overwhelming margin,” according to the DGA .  ( UPDATE, 11 AM: As you would expect, AMPTP praised the ratification today, though with slightly ominous tones.“We are pleased that the DGA membership has ratified the new contracts. These new agreements will contribute to the stability of the industry by ensuring that feature film and television production – and the jobs dependent on it – can continue without interruption,” said the producers’ group in a statement Wednesday.) The Guild sent … [Read more...] about DGA Members Approve New Deal With Producers

The Directors Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and TV Producers are heading to the bargaining table on November 4, more than six months before the current agreement expires. As announced earlier this year, Thomas Schlamme and Michael Apted will serve as co-heads of the DGA ’s negotiating committee. The latest three-year Basic Agreement and the Freelance Live and Tape TV Agreement are up on June 30, 2014. Unlike the DGA and SAG-AFTRA , the WGA’s agreement ends on May 1 not June 30, 2014. While the DGA is going first this time, s tarting in the fall is fairly typical for the guilds. In fact, last time round, SAG had already wrapped up its deal by the fall of 2010 when the DGA started its talks. The last agreement between the AMPTP and the DGA as well as SAG and the WGA back in 2011 saw low single digit increases in pay and pension fund contributions for guild members. Those rather benign negotiations came after the harsh talks of 2008 that followed the … [Read more...] about DGA & AMPTP Set November Contract Negotiation Start Date

After just 18 days of negotiations, the Directors Guild of America and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers announced tonight that they have reached a tentative agreement on a new three-year TV/theatrical contract. The deal will be reviewed Saturday at a special meeting of the DGA ’s National Board; if the board approves it, the deal will be sent to the full membership for ratification soon afterward. Related: NBCU Hires Labor Relations Topper Ahead Of Negotiations Neither side is commenting tonight. As they have through the negotiations, which began November 4 at AMPTP headquarters in Sherman Oaks, the DGA and the producers have imposed a blackout on details of the tentative agreement until it is approved by the DGA board. Meanwhile, neither the WGA nor the merged SAG-AFTRA has begun their negotiations with the AMPTP. Although the WGA announced its negotiating committee last week, it has yet to set a start date for talks. SAG-AFTRA is not … [Read more...] about DGA, Producers Reach Tentative Deal On Terms of New Contract

Ratification of the new three-year WGA film and TV contract has been overwhelmingly — almost unanimously — approved by members of the WGA East and West, bringing to a close Hollywood’s most contentious contract struggle in a decade. Of the 3,647 valid votes cast there were 3,617 “yes” votes (99.2%) and 30 “no” votes (.8%). There were 9,441 eligible voters. The term of the agreement is from May 2, 2017 through May 1, 2020 . “Our success in these negotiations was due to a highly engaged and dedicated membership, working in tandem with a tireless and informed Negotiating Committee and an extraordinary Guild staff. We achieved new and significant gains that will help today’s writers even as they benefit the next generation,” said WGAW President Howard A. Rodman and WGAE President Michael Winship. “Our thanks go out to all of those who contributed to the process and to the thousands of our fellow writers who participated in the strike authorization and ratification votes.” … [Read more...] about WGA Ratifies New Film & TV Contract

EXCLUSIVE: First among Hollywood unions this year, the WGA is going face-to-face with the studios starting Monday in what’s expected to be contentious negotiations for a new overall contract. However, the atypical pole position for the hard-hitting scribes this labor round is a consequence of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers’ rebuke of the DGA efforts to strike a pact a few months ago. In November 2022, the Directors’ Guild sought to spark an early dialogue with the AMPTP by sending over “pre-conditions,” as one studio source called them, for early negotiations. Over the past decade and more, the DGA has gone ahead of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA in contract talks with the Carol Lombardini-led group. In that context, talks before official talks are nothing new in Hollywood labor circles. However, unlike the past three contract sit-downs, the DGA had some more weighty than usual caveats it wanted dealt with before it would agree to settling on a date … [Read more...] about As WGA & AMPTP Talks Kick Off, Details Emerge Of DGA’s Attempt To Reach Under-The-Radar Deal With Studios