The Writers Guild ought to be getting residuals for what's going on between the AMPTP ("the studios") and the Screen Actors Guild ("the good guys") in their current negotiations. Actually, the negotiations are no longer current, having broken down today with the two sides still light years apart…but the point is it's like a replay of what happened with the WGA, and we oughta get residuals for the rerun.
If anyone thought that our strike would have softened up the studios…well, that doesn't seem to have happened. Accounts are sketchy and conflicting but it seems safe to say the studios are offering our (and the DGA's) "new media" deal in a form that doesn't work for SAG, they're refusing all other increases save the token, low-end cost of living increases, and they're demanding a number of concessions from the actors. One of those proposed concessions is to do away with some fees and all permissions when a clip of an actor is used in a different context. In other words, if you're in a movie, they want to be able to take a segment that you're in and do any damn thing they want with it without paying you and without your okay.
I can't believe that will ever fly with the SAG membership. In fact, it's so outrageous that it sounds like it's in the studios' demands just so it can be dropped later on. As we noted during the WGA head-butting, a favored tactic of the AMPTP is to make an offer that's really lousy with one or two deal-killer points. Then, when they drop those points, the hope is, the union will consider it a "win" and accept what remains, which is still a really crappy deal.
Without a vast amount of confidence, I'll stick with my prediction that there won't be a SAG strike. The studios are sitting down now with the other actors' union, AFTRA, to negotiate a new contract. The expectation seems to be that AFTRA will take a bad deal and then the AMPTP will go back to SAG, tell them they can have the same thing or they can go on strike…and no other options will be discussed. I don't think it'll work because I think SAG and its members know the drill and are inspired by the WGA walkout/holdout. Also, SAG just seems angrier about the basic issues than we were. Still, a lot will be riding on how badly AFTRA eats it.