The SAG-AFTRA strike is nearing 100 days at this point. The WGA has already gotten a landmark deal. But it seems the studios are digging in for the long haul when it comes to the actors. Now, after a Zoom call on Tuesday, Hollywood’s biggest stars laid out a proposal to SAG-AFTRA leadership that supplements the costs for the studios on a new deal. The proposal would come from the highest earners in the guild and go to the lowest members on the payment line.
The offer would remove the $1 million cap on membership dues. The people lowest on the call sheet would be the first to get paid under this proposal. Deadline was first on the news of the proposal. George Clooney, Emma Stone, Ben Affleck, Tyler Perry, and Scarlett Johansson were among the stars to meet with SAG-AFTRA leadership. Here’s what Clooney had to say about the proposal.
“A lot of the top earners want to be part of the solution. 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. 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 fact of the matter is that the studios walked away from negotiations and have refused to get back to the table. They’re greedy and don’t want to give a fair share of massive profits to actors. When their CEOs are making millions of dollars, or in the case of WB CEO David Zaslav, hundreds of millions of dollars. The majority of members of SAG-AFTRA don’t meet the minimum of $26,000 for health insurance benefits.
We hope there can be a resolution to the strike soon. Without actors, we don’t get movies.
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