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MUMBAI:
The
Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP)
in the US has suspended negotiations with Screen Actors Guild
(Sag) over the objections of Sag's negotiating committee.
The
committee had urged that the AMPTP continue discussion and
offered to negotiate in order to secure an agreement.
The
AMPTP declined to continue negotiations with Sag claiming that it was necessary
to turn their attention to negotiating with American Federation of Television
and Radio Artists (Aftra). Sag
president Alan Rosenberg said, "It is unfortunate and deeply troubling that
the AMPTP would suspend our negotiations at this critical juncture. We have modified
our proposals over the last three weeks in effort to bargain a fair contract for
our members. "We
are committed to preserving rights that have been in place for decades and not
giving the studios the right to use excerpts of our work in new media without
our consent and negotiation. Our negotiating team is prepared to work around the
clock for as long as it takes to get a fair deal. We want to keep the town working."
Over
the last four weeks Sag negotiated and modified many of its
proposals to the AMPTP. Sag says that to date, the AMPTP has
offered only a few modifications to its new media proposal
which was submitted to Sag in three documents containing 36
provisions that differed from the deals agreed to with the
WGA and DGA.
Sag
national executive director and chief negotiator Doug Allen stated, "We were
hopeful that we could continue negotiations with the AMPTP and reach a tentative
agreement. We modified our proposals in effort to narrow the gap between us and
now we need the AMPTP do the same. SAG's objective is to keep the town working
and get a fair contract, so we are gravely disappointed that we will now have
to delay to a process that we started over three weeks ago. We are willing to
work for as long as it takes to negotiate a good agreement for our members."
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