George Clooney and a group of other A-listers have brought a bold proposal to SAG-AFTRA leaders suggesting that the union remove the cap on dues for high-earning members in order to infuse more funds into the union’s coffers over the course of three years.
The idea behind the proposal is for major stars like Clooney to pay more in dues than is currently required (the cap is currently at $1 million in earnings) in order to help bridge the gap between what the union is seeking in 2023 negotiations with entertainment studios and what the Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers is willing to give. The proposal also seeks to get lower-income members paid in residuals before higher-income members.
The group of A-listers met with national executive director and chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland and president Fran Drescher to offer the idea, and those leaders told its negotiating committee about the proposition in broad strokes Wednesday night, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed. Deadline was the first to report the news.
THR has reached out to SAG-AFTRA for comment.
The union’s workings are complex and the proposals are very broad. For instance, only the SAG-AFTRA National Convention (which next meets this weekend) has the authority to change the union’s dues system. And the stars appear to be proposing that the dues cap be removed for all members, not just their superstar cohort. “It’s awesome that they want to be helpful. There are structural issues with what they’re proposing that isn’t how our contracts and union works. We’d love for them to get involved as captains right now,” said one SAG-AFTRA insider.
The proposal follows a Zoom call that major SAG-AFTRA members participated in with top union leaders on Tuesday to learn more about what led to the current impasse in negotiations with the AMPTP. Scarlett Johansson, Kerry Washington, Tyler Perry, Bradley Cooper, Meryl Streep, Robert De Niro, Ben Affleck, Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, Emma Stone, Laura Dern and Ryan Reynolds were all present on Tuesday’s call, a source familiar with the meeting has told THR.
The stars’ proposal seeks to bring more income to the union, but does not address the particular sticking points in the negotiation at present. The union and entertainment studios are at a standstill right now on SAG-AFTRA’s streaming viewership proposal, which seeks to charge streaming platforms 57 cents a subscriber per year to produce a fund that would further compensate casts with work on these platforms. SAG-AFTRA’s current proposal, which the AMPTP has so far resisted, would cost studios about $480 million a year. In other words, the union is seeking to create a new revenue stream for members in the streaming era relying on subscriber count, while the companies are resisting setting this new precedent at a time when most streaming platforms are not yet profitable.
The parties also continue to have disagreements on issues including regulations on the use of artificial intelligence in entertainment and raises to minimum wage rates. The studios maintain that their current package of proposals is valued at over $1 billion.
More to come.
Rebecca Keegan contributed reporting.
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