Hollywood studios, actors union call in mediator in effort to avoid strike
Negotiators for the SAG-AFTRA actors union have agreed to a request from Hollywood studios to call in a mediator to try to forge a last-minute labour agreement and avert a second strike in the entertainment industry.
The 160,000 members of SAG-AFTRA have authorized a strike if a deal cannot be reached by 11:59 p.m. PT on Wednesday. The Writers Guild of America has been on strike since early May.
In a statement late on Tuesday, SAG-AFTRA said it aimed to secure a “fair deal” by the Wednesday deadline and “exhaust every possible opportunity.”
“However we are not confident that the employers have any intention of bargaining toward an agreement,” the statement said.
SAG-AFTRA also said that the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), the group that negotiates on behalf of studios, “has abused our trust and damaged the respect we have for them in this process.”
The union said studio sources had leaked the request for a mediator to the press before SAG-AFTRA negotiators were informed.
A spokesperson for the AMPTP, which represents the Walt Disney Co., Netflix and other major studios, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
