George Clooney and other stars offer $150m incentive for SAG-AFTRA to end strike

Group of A-list actors proposed no-cap fees on membership dues for higher earners, which they said would earn the actors’ union $150m over three years

George Clooney led a group of some 15 A-list actors in bringing forth a $150m (£123.7m) proposal to SAG-AFTRA leadership. The deal, however, is expected to be dead on arrival.

On Tuesday (17 October), the group of stars, which includes Scarlett Johansson and Tyler Perry, met with the actors’ union’s (SAG-AFTRA) negotiating committee on Zoom to offer a deal in an effort to end the stalemate with Hollywood studios.

They are reported to have proposed a no-cap fee on membership dues for higher earners, which they said would bring in earnings of $50m (£41m) annually – $150m over three years for the union.

In order to gain SAG-AFTRA membership, one must currently pay a $3,000 (£2,400) initiation fee. Members are then expected to pay an annual base fee of $231.96 (£190) plus 1.575 per cent of their protected earnings up to $1m. While higher earners pay more work dues, the cap limits their contribution.

The meeting, however, is said not to have gone well, a source with knowledge of the situation told Variety, as the committee “didn’t see the validity” in the group’s proposal.

In addition to the no-cap fees, the group suggested a bottom-up residual approach, which would allow lower earners to collect residuals before top earners.

“A lot of the top earners want to be part of the solution,” Clooney told Deadline.

Hollywood Strikes (2023 Invision)

“We think it’s fair for us to pay more into the union,” the Ocean’s Eleven star added. “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.”

According to Variety, members of the negotiating committee argue that the no-cap part of the group’s proposal is not directly relevant to the hindered negotiations with the studios.

“I’ll reach out to George to talk to him,” said David Jolliffe, a member of the negotiating committee, via Variety. “We appreciate everybody’s help. Everybody has ideas. But we’ve been doing this for almost a year now.”

The actors’ strike has been ongoing since 19 July, when the union made the historic decision to join its fellow Writers Guild of America (WGA) members in the fight for a fairer deal. However, the WGA reached a deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) last month, ending the writers’ strike after 146 days.

Among SAG-AFTRA’s chief demands include increased wages, higher streaming residuals and improved working conditions.