Negotiations for a new spot actors’ contract resumed this past Monday (4/10) in New York. As SHOOT went to press, it wasn’t known what progress, if any, had been made in the latest session of talks between the Joint Policy Committee (JPC) of the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A’s) and the Association of National Advertisers (ANA), and the two talent unions, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA).
While the industry harbors hope of a settlement, the prospect of an actors’ strike still looms over the business. Word on the street is that the SAG and AFTRA executive boards are tentatively scheduled to convene the week of April 17 to assess their next course of action.
OPTIONS
The union boards have three options. If the talks that were underway at press time prove fruitful, the boards for both SAG and AFTRA could meet to review a new agreement and consider it for approval. However, the flip side is that if negotiations reach an impasse, the unions might call a strike. (As earlier reported, the union negotiating team and executive boards received landslide approval from SAG and AFTRA members to strike "if it becomes absolutely necessary in order to achieve a fair contract" with the JPC.) The third alternative is that current talks could be promising enough to lead both sides to agree to again extend the contract’s deadline. As previously reported, the original contract was to have expired on March 31, but was extended to April 10.
Whether those 10 days have served to bring the two sides closer to an agreement remained to be seen at press time. Certainly, just prior to the latest recess, the JPC and talent unions appeared to be far apart in their proposals as previously delineated in SHOOT (4/7, p. 1).
Several production companies told SHOOT that they had received a flurry of new boards, as well as agency requests to expedite jobs to take advantage of the recent extension. Meanwhile, in the event of a strike, banks of non-union talent shots and resumés are being compiled by the casting community and by production houses. Also, an increasing number of spots have called for filming in foreign countries. The JPC’s stance, which is supported by the Association of Independent Commercial Producers, is that the industry will continue to produce commercials—in the U.S. or abroad—if a strike occurs (SHOOT, 3/24, p. 1).
