Hollywood studios make last minute offer to actors union as contract expires
1/7/2008 17:06
Hollywood studios made a last-minute offer yesterday evening to a major
actors union with the current three-day labor contract between the two sides was
expected to expire midnight.
The offer included benefits similar to those
granted earlier to writers, directors and the industry's smaller actors union,
according to a report on the Los Angeles Times website.
The entertainment
industry is in a "de facto strike" with film production nearly shut down and
television production threatened, said the Alliance of Motion Picture and
Television Producers, which represents major Hollywood studios and television
networks.
However, the trade group sent the clearest sign yet that it
wouldn't lock out actors if negotiators didn't settle on a contract before the
current pact expired the midnight deadline.
The AMPTP sponsored full-page
advertisements in major trade publications Variety and the Hollywood Reporter
Sunday, arguing that the entertainment industry had suffered enough from
previous work stoppages over contract disputes.
The advertisements cited a
study by the Los Angeles-base think tank Milken Institute showing that the
100-day writers strike that ended in February had put more than 37,000 people
out of work and resulted in US$2.3 billion in lost wages.
According to Jack
Kyser, chief economist for the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corp, the
writers strike cost the local economy estimated US$3 billion, including lost
wages for writers and production workers, and reduced businesses for
Hollywood-related service industry.
Meanwhile, leaders of the 120,000-member
Screen Actor Guild have said they would also like to keep negotiating after the
current contract expires, and had not called for a strike authorization from its
members.
"Any talk about a strike or a management lockout at this point is
simply a distraction," SAG President Alan Rosenberg said Sunday in a
statement.
Xinhua
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