娱乐英语资讯：Hollywood film, TV actors unions part before contract talks_娱乐

娱乐英语资讯：Hollywood film, TV actors unions part before contract talks

"AFTRA's refusal now to bargain together with us and their last-second abandonment of the joint process is calculated, cynical and may serve the interests of their institution, but not its members," he added.

Meanwhile, AFTRA officials called the SAG statement part of "a relentless campaign of misinformation."

SAG officials had hoped Saturday's meeting to set an early date for new contract negotiations, as Hollywood film and television actors' current three-year contract expires until June 30.

Many A-list actors like Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep and Robert De Niro had been pressing the union to start talks with studios immediately to avoid a potential strike like the recently ended writers' strike, which had cost the entertainment industry and local economy billions of dollars.

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP),which represents major Hollywood studios and TV networks, issued a statement Saturday saying producers were pleased that AFTRA is ready to negotiate a new contract separately.

AMPTP said it called for the talks with actors to begin just after it concluded its agreement last month with the writers' union, which ended the over-100-day writers' strike.

"We are determined to work hard and bargain reasonably with the actors' unions so that we can all avoid another harmful, unnecessary strike," said the AMPTP statement.

The studios had invited the two actors' unions to jointly begin negotiations the first week of April and were awaiting a response from them to set a timeline, but AFTRA decided to terminate the joint bargaining just before Saturday's joint meeting between the two unions.