SAGAFTRA Meets With WGA Leadership To Streamline Changes to Interim Agreements

You might have to kiss your interim agreement contract goodbye, for now.

Moving forward, SAGAFTRA will not be offering these interim deals to titles covered by a Writers Guild of America contract that are also produced in the U.S. SAG-AFTRA negotiations leadership told members on Monday(today) via memo of the changes to interim agreements. The move came after “several productive and collaborative meetings” with the WGA, which is also currently on strike and not offering interim deals during their own work stoppage.

“We have been advised by the WGA that this modification will assist them in executing their strike strategy, and we believe it does not undermine the utility and effectiveness of ours. It is a win-win change,” the SAG-AFTRA negotiating committee said in the message.

There is good news if you’re an actor. If you are already working on a project a stoppage order from SAGAFTRA has not been issued. The union did not state that any interim agreements already offered to such projects would be rescinded; rather, “going forward,” this would be the union’s policy.  Interim agreements have been the subject of some arguments from members, and controvery in general, since they were introduced amid SAGAFTRA’s ongoing work stoppage. Interim agreements were intended to offer options to titles produced outside the jurisdiction of the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. These greenlit agreements allow production to continue on projects if all of SAGAFTRA priorities in the 2023 negotiations are agreed to. Examples of some requirements to have an interim agreement as an indie studio include contracts that include, an 11 percent increase in minimum wages and revenue sharing for casts of streaming projects.

Currently a handful of titles are in production under the interim agreements. Including, some with ties to large streamers — such as the Apple TV+ title: Tehran. Tehran is shot in Greece and produced by an Israeli company (talk about jumping through loopholes), qualified for an interim agreement at least in part due to international laws on striking.

SAGAFTRA has clarified the purpose of interim agreements is to offer employment opportunities to “journeymen” members and crew members who belong to other unions in a move to deter the industry from turning to non-union foreign productions. So far, over 200 productions have secured these deals, according to the union’s latest list, including A24’s film projects Death of a Unicorn and Mother Mary.