Amid the town’s growing consensus that the Screen Actors Guild is not going to strike, SAG is staying in stall mode. The guild offered no response to the congloms’ latest effort to dial up the pressure by warning that they may have to scale back their final offer if the economy worsens.

SAG has remained unswayed by such moves. Guild leaders haven’t moved toward a strike authorization amid signs they would probably not be able to achieve the required 75% support level to stage a walkout.

SAG’s leaders are expected to reiterate today their insistence that they still want to negotiate further on the majors’ final offer — even though the companies pulled the plug June 30 when SAG’s feature-primetime contract expired.

The stalemate’s likely to persist for several more weeks at least. The two sides can’t even agree on how to characterize the current situation.

The Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers has told SAG explicitly the final offer is a take-it-or-leave-it proposition that won’t be revised. SAG continues to insist that its refusal to accept the AMPTP deal does not amount to a rejection; furthermore, it contends that its presentation of counterproposals constitutes bargaining despite the AMPTP’s denials.