Studios Seek Federal Mediation in Tense SAG-AFTRA Negotiations

Katie Kilkenny
·3 min read
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The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers is requesting federal help in its ongoing negotiations with Hollywood’s biggest union.

The group, which bargains with labor unions on behalf of studios and streamers, has requested facilitators from the Federal Mediation & Conciliation Service to step in on the ongoing negotiations with performers’ union SAG-AFTRA. Insiders say the decision follows calls with high-level company executives including Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, Warner Bros.-Discovery chief David Zaslav, Disney Entertainment co-chairmen Dana Walden and Alan Bergman, Apple TV chiefs Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg, NBCUniversal Chief Content Officer Donna Langley, Amazon Studio bosses Mike Hopkins and Jen Salke as well as select company general counsels on Monday, where the executives surfaced the idea of federal intervention.

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Facilitators could only be brought in if SAG-AFTRA also requests help in the discussions from the federal agency. “Collective bargaining mediation is the voluntary process in which a third-party neutral assists labor and management in to reach agreement on a negotiated collective bargaining agreement,” the FCMS notes on its website. The Hollywood Reporter has reached out to SAG-AFTRA and the FMCS for comment. Variety was the first to report the news.

The move appears to be a last-ditch attempt, with less than 36 hours to go before the expiration of the SAG-AFTRA TV/theatrical contract package, to salvage and/or extend the negotiations before they are set to conclude Wednesday at 11:59 p.m. After that time, SAG-AFTRA can call a strike against film and television companies, given that nearly 98 percent of the union’s voting members authorized a strike in June.

A strike would deal a major blow to companies already reeling from the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike, which has significantly reduced the amount of physical production in New York and Los Angeles. With actors and performers walking off the job, all union physical production would essentially cease. Promotional campaigns for upcoming projects and the Emmys in addition to star appearances at film festivals and Comi-Con would all likely be in jeopardy as well.

SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP are understood to have yet to reach a compromise on several key issues. During this negotiation, SAG-AFTRA has prioritized overall boosts in compensation, revamped streaming residuals and regulation over the use of generative A.I., among a host of other key issues. Studios and streamers, meanwhile, are seeking to rein in costs during an overall era of belt-tightening.

During the 2007-2008 writers’ strike, the Writers Guild of America and the AMPTP agreed to bring federal mediators in before the strike even began. Ultimately, the strike ended due to a combination of factors, including a Directors Guild of America deal that helped provide a template for the writers’ pact and the intervention of various well-connected agents and lawyers, who collectively helped thaw relations between labor and management.

Overall, federal mediators work primarily to guide talks and smooth over conflicts, not to decide contract language. Notes FCMS on its website, “a mediator does not have authority to impose a settlement or to determine contract terms.”

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