The actors union headquarters in Los Angeles. | Photo courtesy of ismael daro/Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
Union and studio negotiators are expected to meet again over the weekend in an attempt to end the actors’ strike, which has reached 106 days.
“We completed a full and productive day working internally and will continue into the weekend,” the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists said in a statement released Friday night.
Representatives of the union and Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, which represents the studios, met on Friday at SAG-AFTRA’s Mid-Wilshire headquarters for the third time in four days.
However, four studio CEOs — David Zaslav of Warner Bros. Discovery, Donna Langley of NBCUniversal, Ted Sarandos of Netflix and Bob Iger of Disney — who have been present at the earlier sessions this week were not at the table on Friday, the entertainment trade newspaper Variety reported, citing a source it did not name.
Optimism has begun to spread throughout the entertainment industry. Michael Akins, the business agent of IATSE Local 479 in Georgia, told members in an email on Friday afternoon to be ready to return to work sometime in November, according to Variety.
“At this time, we have no concrete information from any studio, but the writing is clearly on the wall that the industry shutdown is in its final days,” Akins wrote. “We are confident that our members will be returning to work within the next few weeks.”
The International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees represents technicians, artisans and craftspersons in the entertainment industry.
It remains unclear whether that optimism is warranted, as the actors union still has a long list of demands, according to Variety.
The CEOs have warned there is little time left to save the 2023-24 broadcast television season, and they continue to fear that the summer movie season will be badly damaged if the strike is not resolved soon, Variety reported.
The union sees that as an empty threat, but is also dealing with growing restlessness among its A-list members, according to Variety.
The actors’ union demands include general wage increases, protections against the use of actor images through artificial intelligence, boosts in compensation for successful streaming programs and improvements in health and retirement benefits.