AMPTP makes 'final offer' to SAG

This evening, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers extended a small and somewhat veiled olive branch to the Screen Actors Guild. In a statement, the AMPTP said its “final offer would make the wage and salary increases retroactive to July 1, 2008 if the agreement is ratified by SAG’s membership no later than August 15, 2008.” The statement comes a day after AFTRA ratified its own deal and a day before the producers are to meet with SAG to discuss the AMPTP’s final offer. The producers went on to say that this is a “traditional incentive in the final offer in order to get everyone back to work and end the de facto strike.” The offer, though, doesn’t give SAG much time to make a decision to accept the deal, send it to its membership for a vote and count all of the ballots — a process that took AFTRA more than a month to complete in its agreement.