Conglomerates present Screen Actors Guild with their "final" offer

The AMPTP issued a statement asserting Our final offer to SAG represents a final hope for avoiding further work stoppages and getting everyone back to work. Members of the Alliance include Time Warner, Disney, Rupert Murdochs News Corp., General Electrics NBC Universal, Viacom, CBS, Sony and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, among others.

SAG leaders have criticized a tentative agreement recently reached between the employers and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (AFTRA), and actively campaigned against its acceptance. AFTRA has some 70,000 members; 44,000 performers are members of both unions.

In a message to their membership, SAG leaders commented that The AMPTP today delivered a last-minute, 43-page offer that upon initial examination appears to be generally consistent with the AFTRA deal.

In an initial response, SAG executive director and chief negotiator Doug Allen commented: This offer does not appear to address some key issues important to actors. For example, the impact of forgoing residuals for all made-for-new-media productions is incalculable and would mean the beginning of the end of residuals.