SAG-AFTRA’s A-Listers Try Gambit to Help End Actors’ Strike

George Clooney and a group of other A-listers have submitted a bold proposal to SAG-AFTRA leaders, suggesting that the union lift the cap on dues for high-earning members to increase its coffers over three years of the union. .

The idea behind the proposal is that major stars like Clooney would have to pay more dues than is currently necessary (the limit is currently $1 million in revenue) to help bridge the gap between what the union is seeking in negotiations with entertainment studios in 2023. and what the Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers is willing to give. The proposal also aims to get lower-income members paid in residuals before higher-income members.

The group of A-listers met with national executive director and chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland and President Fran Drescher to pitch the idea, and those leaders gave their negotiating committee a broad outline of the proposal Wednesday night. The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed. Deadline was the first to report the news.

THR has contacted SAG-AFTRA for comment.

The operation of the union is complex and the proposals are very broad. For example, only the SAG-AFTRA National Convention (which meets again this weekend) has the authority to change the union’s dues system. And the stars also appear to be proposing abolishing the contribution limit for all members, not just their cohort of superstars. “It’s great that they want to be helpful. There are structural problems with what they are proposing: that is not how our contracts and union work. We would love to see them involved as captains now,” said a SAG-AFTRA insider.

The proposal follows a Zoom call that key SAG-AFTRA members participated in Tuesday with top union leaders to learn more about what led to the current impasse in negotiations with the AMPTP. Scarlett Johansson, Kerry Washington, Tyler Perry, Bradley Cooper, Meryl Streep, Robert DeNiro, Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Emma Stone, Laura Dern and Ryan Reynolds were all present on Tuesday’s call, a source familiar with the matter said. is with the meeting. THR.

The stars’ proposal aims to generate more income for the union, but does not address the specific sticking points in the current negotiations. Unions and entertainment studios are currently mulling over SAG-AFTRA’s streaming viewership proposal, which aims to charge streaming platforms 57 cents per subscriber per year to create a fund that would further compensate casts with work on these platforms. SAG-AFTRA’s current proposal, which the AMPTP has thus far opposed, would cost studios about $480 million per year. In other words, the union is trying to create a new revenue stream for members in the streaming age, depending on the number of subscribers, while the companies are resisting setting this new precedent at a time when most streaming platforms are not yet profitable.

The parties also continue to have disagreements over, among other things, regulations on the use of AI in entertainment and minimum wage increases. The studios claim that their current package of proposals is valued at well over $1 billion.

More to come.