Deadline reports what could end up being a major factor in ending the ongoing strike between SAG-AFTRA and AMPTP, and it’s centered on a subject that few might have expected to make much of a difference: guild membership dues. A consortium of top-earning stars including George Clooney, Ben Affleck, Emma Stone, Tyler Perry, and Scarlett Johansson have reportedly presented SAG-AFTRA leadership (including Fran Drescher) with a plan to contribute what will amount to more than $150 million in new revenue for the guild by eliminating the cap on membership dues, which currently sits at $1 million.
Under the plan, the guild’s top earners would be contributing money towards benefits that the rest of SAG-AFTRA’s membership, the so-called “other guys” who are working actors scraping together a living year to year, need most, like health benefits. Clooney gave a statement to Deadline outlining how the plan seeks to serve this vast unsung majority of SAG-AFTRA member rolls in another way as well:
“A lot of the top earners want to be part of the solution. We’ve offered to remove the cap on dues, which would bring over $50 million to the union annually. Well over $150 million over the next three years. We think it’s fair for us to pay more into the union. We also are suggesting a bottom-up residual structure — meaning the top of the call sheet would be the last to collect residuals, not the first. These negotiations will be ongoing, but we wanted to show that we’re all in this together and find ways to help close the gap on actors getting paid.”
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With negotiations between the parties in question at a stalemate and studio representatives walking away from the table, there’s no telling when a new deal will be struck. But thanks to ideas like this one, it could be a radically different business for working actors once it’s able to start up again.
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