SAG: AMPTP offer not a good one

LOS ANGELES, July 17 (UPI) -- The Screen Actors Guild said Thursday the contract that Hollywood producers called their final offer is unacceptable.

SAG National Executive Director Doug Allen said in a message posted on the guild's Web site that SAG negotiators have not accepted the June 30 offer "for one reason and one reason only: It's not a good offer."

"It doesn't address enough of your priorities … particularly in new media," Allen said.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers extended the proposal June 30, the day before its contract with SAG expired.

Allen said the AMPTP offer on new media is nearly the same as the deals accepted by the Directors Guild of America, the Writers Guild of America and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, but he said "the landscape in digital media has dramatically shifted" since those contracts were approved.

"(The DGA and WGA) resolution of the new media issues may work for them, but they don't address your specific needs," Allen told SAG members.

The AMPTP Thursday rejected that argument and said "it ignores the truly seismic shifts we have all seen over the last six months in the rapidly deteriorating economy, the worsening credit crisis, and the skyrocketing price of energy."

The AMPTP said its offer was "good and fair" -- offering "more than $250 million in increased compensation, groundbreaking new media rights, and pension and health protections that most Americans would envy."