SAG-AFTRA Working “As Fast As We Can” On Waivers For Indie Productions; Approvals Could Be Public By Tuesday

EXCLUSIVE: SAG-AFTRA is on strike, but not all members of the union won’t be working.

Since the 160,000 strong SAG -AFTRA officially declared on June 14 that it was joining the Writers Guild on the picket lines, the Fran Drescher-run group has been working on granting waivers to indie productions.

“We put the application process up on the first day of the strike,” said SAG-AFTRA chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland today outside Netflix. “And we’ve already got hundreds of applications …we will be responding to all of them,” the union leader added, noting the project can’t have “any AMPTP fingerprints on them” if they hope to be granted an interim agreement a.k.a. waiver.

In fact, with projects like The Chosen already claiming to have been given the greenlight, a preliminary list of approved productions is expected to be made public by SAG-AFTRA later today or tomorrow, I hear.

“We will give as many interim agreements as we can, so long as they are truly independent,” Crabtree-Ireland state on the picket line Monday as the first full week of the union’s latest strike kicked off. “Our staff has to read each and every one to make sure that they are truly independent …we’re working through that as fast as we can,” the National Executive Director went on to say.

Union rules permit provable independent, non-AMPTP productions that desire to film under SAG-AFTRA’s now expired TV/Theatrical Agreements and related contracts could be eligible for an interim agreement to keep filming. Successful applicants for an interim agreement will be bound retroactively to whatever contract terms eventually are achieved with the studios and streamer when a new contract is ultimately reached — whenever that may be.

No interim agreement/waiver is required for productions filming under several of the guild’s lowest budget agreements. Why? Because they are not being struck. Those exemptions include the Short Project Agreement, the Micro Budget Agreement, the Student Film Agreement, and the Independent New Media Agreement.

Having said that, in a tense time in Tinseltown and expecting some to try to abuse the agreements SAG-AFTRA also make clear that their board has “discretion with respect to rules/conditions governing the strike and they have the ability to adjust strike rules as necessary.”