SAG-AFTRA Negotiating Committee Moves Towards Final Vote – The Hollywood Reporter

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The SAG-AFTRA negotiating committee is meeting to discuss the studios’ latest offer, and the conversation will likely lead to a final vote by the union on the deal.

Continuing its discussion from Tuesday night on the latest proposal by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the negotiating team met Wednesday starting around 11 a.m. It was not clear at press time when a decisive vote could be held on the deal, but one source on the union side said the group was voting at that point on the shape of the final package that the team would send to AMPTP President Carole Lombardini to see if the management side would sign on. . The union side will have one final amendment on approval of the generative AI to send to AMPTP, which is not expected to be a deal-breaker, the source added.

Some time after the negotiating committee — a group of 17 voting members and 17 alternates that operates on the basis of general consensus — counts its final votes on the agreement, it will announce whether it will support it to members, a separate union side says. source.

Several sources expressed optimism that the final vote and agreement could be held on Wednesday. According to multiple sources familiar with the negotiations, SAG leadership expects the negotiating committee to vote unanimously to support the deal it reached with AMPTP.

The negotiating committee spoke for 10 hours Tuesday about the latest deal between the two companies, the group told members that night. “We appreciate your patience and support as we finish our work,” they said.

David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros., said: Discovery, in an earnings call Tuesday, pitched the studio as “last and final” and said it “achieves nearly all of the union’s goals.” He added: “We recognize that we need our creative partners to feel valued and rewarded and look forward to getting both sides back to work telling great stories.” Meanwhile, in an interview with CNBC on the same day, Disney CEO Bob Iger said he was “optimistic” that a casting deal would be reached soon. He added of the 2024 film slate: “Obviously we want to try to maintain the summer of movies. The whole industry is focused on that. We don’t have a lot of time to do that.”

But the negotiating committee vote is just one step in a larger process. According to the SAG-AFTRA ConstitutionAll national multi-employer collective bargaining agreements—such as the television/theatrical deal—must be approved by the union’s national council and then ratified by its members to take effect.

Kim Masters and Rebecca Keegan contributed reporting.