How SAG-AFTRA Talks Collapsed: ‘I Was Taken Completely By Surprise,’ Union Chief Says
variety.comSAG-AFTRA headquarters Thursday, continuing to negotiate a new contract with the heads of four major studios. But on Wednesday evening, he got a call from the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers informing him that the talks were off. “I was taken completely by surprise,” said Crabtree-Ireland, the chief negotiator for the actors union. “Today we were planning to have an all-day session.” The AMPTP announced Wednesday night that the talks have been suspended, saying the differences between the sides is “too great” and that “conversations are no longer moving us in a productive direction.” It was yet another setback in a year that has been full of them, and it dashed the optimism that followed the end of the 148-day writers strike.
It is not clear how long it will take for talks to resume, but insiders are privately predicting that it could be weeks or even months.
In the meantime, the industry will continue to sit idle, exacerbating the damage from a historic year of labor strife. The talks with SAG-AFTRA resumed on Oct.
2 for the first time since July, and from the outside it appeared that the two sides were making some progress. But it was a different story in the negotiating room.
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