LOS ANGELES, June 30 (Reuters) – The Hollywood actors’ union and major Hollywood studios agreed on Friday to continue negotiations until mid-July, averting the imminent threat of a second entertainment industry strike this summer.
The SAG-AFTRA union and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) said they would extend their current contract, which was due to expire at midnight, until July 12.
The agreement gives the two parties more time to reach a deal and avoid a work stoppage that would have contributed to Hollywood’s ongoing labor disputes. Members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) left their jobs on May 2, forcing many film and TV productions to close.
A-list stars including Jennifer Lawrence and Meryl Streep said in a letter to union leaders this week that they were ready to quit the job if negotiators failed to reach a “transformative deal” over a higher basic salary and guarantees around the use of artificial intelligence (AI).
The letter came days after union negotiators released a video saying their talks had been “extremely productive,” a possible sign that a deal was within reach.
In a message to members on Friday, SAG-AFTRA negotiators had unanimously agreed to the contract extension “to exhaust every opportunity to achieve the just contract we all demand and deserve.”
“No one should confuse this expansion with weakness,” they said.
SAG-AFTRA voted in early June to give its leaders the power to declare a strike if talks fail.
The negotiations took place at a difficult time for Hollywood studios. Conglomerates are under pressure from Wall Street to make their streaming services profitable after pumping billions of dollars into programs to attract subscribers.
The rise of streaming has eroded television advertising revenues as traditional TV audiences shrink.
The 11,500 writers’ strike has shut down much of TV production and delayed the filming of movies, including Marvel’s “Thunderbolts” and “Blade.” All ongoing recordings should be halted if actors strike as well.
Leaders of SAG-AFTRA, which represents 160,000 actors, and the WGA say the entertainment industry has been transformed by the rise of streaming television and the rise of technology such as generative AI, which they fear could be used to write scripts or create digital create actors. .
The AMPTP, which negotiates on behalf of the studios, declined to comment on its talks with SAG-AFTRA. According to a joint statement on Friday, the two sides have agreed to continue negotiations without discussing the talks with the media.
With the writers, the AMPTP said it had offered “generous” pay increases but could not agree to all of the writers’ demands. The studios and the WGA have not had any talks since the writers’ strike began on May 2.
The WGA strike is hitting caterers, prop suppliers and other small businesses that derive a large portion of their revenue from Hollywood productions. The last writers’ strike in 2007 and 2008 cost the California economy an estimated $2.1 billion.
Reporting by Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles; Additional reporting by Hanna Rantala and Sarah Mills in London; Adapted by Mary Milliken, Rosalba O’Brien, Cynthia Osterman, Simon Cameron-Moore and William Mallard