SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers agreed tonight to extend their contract talks on a day-to-day basis. Their current deal was set to expire at midnight PT.

Here is their joint release:

In a joint statement, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) announce that the parties will continue to bargain, and the contract has been extended on a day-to-day basis.

News of an extension was welcome after the contract talks had hit a major roadblock several days ago. On Sunday, the union accused management’s AMPTP of demanding “outrageous rollbacks” at the bargaining table. According to union officials, the companies’ demands “will mean more for less – more hours, more work, more unreimbursed travel and less opportunity for fair compensation.”

Union leaders had vowed if a deal hadn’t been reached by the midnight deadline, they would ask their members for strike authorization. Actors haven’t struck the film and TV industry since 1980 — the year former guild president Ronald Reagan was sent to the White House — though the union currently is engaged in a 253-day strike against selected video game companies, the longest strike in SAG history.

A strike, should it comes to that, wouldn’t take place for several weeks. The guild has scheduled membership informational meetings through July 9, and it could take several more weeks after that to complete a strike-authorization vote. Membership authorization of a strike is all but certain, but there’s still plenty of time for labor and management to resume talks and make a deal.

At the first membership meeting on Wednesday, several hundred performers in attendance expressed their strong support for the guild’s negotiating position.

Informal talks for the new pact began on May 15, but formal negotiations didn’t begin until May 31, which gave negotiators only a month to reach an agreement.