AMPTP: SAG postcard mailing a delay tactic

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 1 (UPI) -- A group of Hollywood film and television producers is criticizing the Screen Actors Guild's recent postcard poll as a "delay tactic."

SAG leaders have rejected what the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers had described June 30 as its final offer.

The latest SAG-AMPTP contract expired July 1 and, other than a sidebar meeting in mid-July, no new discussions between the two parties have been held or set.

The AMPTP issued a statement Monday regarding a mailing SAG negotiators recently sent to guild members.

"It's long past time for SAG's negotiators to close this deal, and a mass postcard mailing is just another delay tactic meant to mask the fact that SAG's negotiators have no coherent strategy," the AMPTP said in its statement Monday. "In fact, SAG's postcard 'poll' appears to be designed to deliver just one thing: a result pre-ordained by SAG's negotiators."

The AMPTP then noted it has already agreed to new contracts with other four guilds this year.

"The longer SAG's negotiators hold out, the more SAG members will lose out on the new media rights and residuals, salary, pension and other increases in the producers' $250 million final offer," the AMPTP statement said.