MUMBAI: The standoff between the Screen Actors Guild in the US and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) continues.

In a bid to convince its members to press for a more satisfactory agreement, the mebers of Sag‘s negotiating board had sent a 14-page newsletter to its members called ‘Your negotiating committee fights on to achieve a fair contract‘.

It had articles such as ‘The beginning of the end of residuals‘ and ‘Why can‘t Sag just give in?‘ and also includes a polling card calling on members to vote to continue negotiations or accept the final AMPTP offer. Sag members continue to work under the old contract that had expired in June 2008.

Meanwhile the AMPTP had rebutted saying that Sag‘s mass postcard mailing is designed to give Sag negotiators the answer they want to hear – and only the answer they want to hear. The two questions on the postcard “poll” are written in a completely one-sided way, characterising the 30 June final offer as unfair.

The AMPTP statement notes that the 12 pages of material accompanying the postcard are just as one-sided and are filled with misrepresentations. AMPTP refutes Sag‘s negotiators insistence that talks are ongoing. The facts are exactly the opposite says the AMPTP.

“No informal negotiations regarding SAG‘s TV/Theatrical contract have been going on, and for Sag‘s negotiators to suggest otherwise is to intentionally mislead the membership. AMPTP has made the new media template work for directors, writers and actors (in two separate Aftra agreements), and all have now gone back to work. It‘s long past time for Sag members to begin enjoying the higher wages, plan contributions, streaming and other new media residuals already being paid to other Guild members.”

Sag‘s national executive director Doug Allen maintains that the reason a new contract has not been signed is because the AMPTP has not put forth an accepatble offer.