Actor represented by the Hollywood union SAG-AFTRA voted Monday night to authorize a strike if they don’t agree a new deal with major studios, streamers and production companies by June 30.
The strike authorization was passed overwhelmingly – almost 98% of the 65,000 members who cast their vote.
The guild, which represents over 160,000 film actors, broadcast journalists, announcers, hosts and stunt performers, begins negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers on Wednesday, more than a month after the Writers Guild of America began to strike over his own quarrel with AMPTP. Should the actors’ union eventually go ahead with the strike, it would be limited to television and film production; News and broadcasting work would not be directly affected.
At stake is increased base pay, which stakeholders say has been eroded by inflation the streaming ecosystem, the threat of unregulated use of artificial intelligence, performance schedules and the burden of “self-taped auditions,” the cost of which used to be the responsibility of casting and production.
“We are approaching these negotiations with the goal of reaching a new agreement that is beneficial to SAG-AFTRA members and the industry at large,” the AMPTP said in a statement Monday.
The strike authorization vote, a tool at the negotiating table, comes at a pivotal time for the industry as 11,500 writers head into their sixth week of strike action the Directors Guild is reviewing a recently reached tentative agreement with studios on issues such as wages, streaming residuals and artificial intelligence. Should the actors strike, he will The industry was already limping As a result of the writers’ strike, production almost came to a standstill until projects were completed.
WGA, DGA and SAG-AFTRA have shown solidarity with each other since the authors began on May 2nd with the picket marching off. Many in Hollywood worried about the very real possibility that all three guilds would strike at the same time, as both the directors’ and actors’ contracts were about to expire.
That scenario changed on Sunday night when the Directors Guild, which represents 19,000 film, television and advertising directors, announced it had reached a “truly historic” tentative agreement with the studios. The terms, which have not been disclosed to the press or to the other guilds in detail, will be submitted to the DGA Board for approval on Tuesday and then to members for ratification.
Representatives from both the Authors’ Guild and the Actors’ Guild congratulated the directors’ group on finalizing a tentative agreement, but did not comment on specific points of the DGA terms. The WGA said so too its negotiating positions remains the same.
The DGA deal did not sit well with some individual WGA members. Some of them still remembered how the directors negotiated their own contract while the writers were on strike in 2007-2008. Some felt that this deal set a precedent 15 years ago, forcing the writers to comply with the terms agreed by the DGA and end the strike.
“No surprise. The AMPTP continues to use their outdated old playbook. And the DGA sadly continues to stand by the line, knowing that they can count on the WGA’s determination to negotiate a truly historic deal. Disappointing but not surprising,” tweeted veteran television writer Steven DeKnight, who also wrote and directed Pacific Rim: Uprising.
Apparently anticipating a repeat, the WGA negotiating committee released a letter last week warning that studios would once again adopt a divide-and-conquer strategy and pit guilds against each other.
“Our position is clear: in order to resolve the strike, the companies must negotiate with the WGA on our entire agenda,” the WGA’s letter said. “We will keep marching until the companies deal fairly with us.”
While the unions appeared more united this time, Their goals are also different in many areas. For the directors, securing international streaming remnants that drive subscriber growth was a key component, as were wages, safety (like the ban on live ammunition on set), diversity and inclusion, and the introduction of Juneteenth as a paid holiday.
The WGA agenda includes higher salaries, better residual pay and minimum staffing requirements. A key area where they all overlap is artificial intelligence. The DGA said they reached a “groundbreaking agreement that affirms that AI is not a person and that generative AI cannot replace the duties performed by members.”
Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, SAG-AFTRA’s chief negotiator, emphasizes that the needs of the guild’s actor members are unique. Hollywood actors have not gone on strike against AMPTP since 1980, when there was a 95-day strike over pay-TV and VHS tape conditions.
“Our negotiation strategy has never relied on or depended on the outcome or status of another union’s negotiations. Nor do we have the philosophy that we are bound by the terms of contracts with other unions,” Crabtree-Ireland said on Sunday.
On Monday, he added that the vote was a “clear statement that it was time for this treaty to evolve.”
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