Hollywood studios say they offered actors $1 billion in gains before strike

livemint.com:

Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) has said film and television studios in Hollywood offered actors over $1 billion in higher compensation and enhanced benefits before the SAG-AFTRA union called a strike last week. The AMPTP, which negotiated on behalf of Netflix, Walt Disney, Warner Bros Discovery and others, said the labor union representing media professionals "continues to mischaracterize the negotiations." The Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRAP called a strike last Thursday after the negotiators said they were unable to reach an agreement with studios on a new three-year contract with higher benefits and limits on the use of their images by artificial intelligence.

The AMPTP in a statement said, "The deal that SAG-AFTRA walked away from on July 12 is worth more than $1 billion in wage increases, pension and health contributions and residual increases and includes first-of-their-kind protections over its three-year term, including expressly with respect to AI." "For SAG-AFTRA to assert that we have not been responsive to the needs of its membership is disingenuous at best," the AMPTP added. Earlier on Monday, SAG-AFTRA issued a detailed list of its proposals, and what it said were the studios' responses, under the title "We're fighting for the survival of our profession." SAG-AFTRA said it asked for an 11% general wage increase in the first year of the contract to make up for inflation.

The union said the studios countered with an offer of 5%. "We moved on some things, but from day one they wouldn’t meaningfully engage on the most critical issues," SAG-AFTRA added.