SAG-AFTRA On Strike: Board OKs Its First Walkout Against Film/TV Biz Since 1980
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - JULY 13: (Center L-R) Frances Fisher, SAG President Fran Drescher, National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator of SAG-AFTRA Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, and SAG-AFTRA members are seen as SAG-AFTRA National Board holds a press conference for vote on recommendation to call a strike regarding the TV/Theatrical contract at SAG-AFTRA on July 13, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
SAG-AFTRA’s national board voted unanimously this morning to launch the guild’s first strike against the film and television industry since 1980. The strike is set to begin tonight one minute past midnight, with picketing at all the major studios.
SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher and National Executive Director and chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland are speaking at a press briefing at the guild’s national headquarters in Los Angeles.
With the Writers Guild strike now in its 73rd day, this will be the first time that actors and writers have been on strike at the same time since 1960, when Ronald Reagan was president of the Screen Actors Guild.
Negotiations between SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers broke off late Wednesday night with no agreement on terms for a new contract. The guild’s negotiating committee then unanimously recommended that the board approve a strike. On June 5, the guild’s members voted 98% in favor of authorizing a strike if a fair deal couldn’t be achieved.
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Drescher, who also chairs the negotiating committee, said Wednesday night that the guild “negotiated in good faith and was eager to reach a deal that sufficiently addressed performer needs, but the AMPTP’s responses to the union’s most important proposals have been insulting and disrespectful of our massive contributions to this industry. The companies have refused to meaningfully engage on some topics and on others completely stonewalled us. Until they do negotiate in good faith, we cannot begin to reach a deal.”
Said Crabtree-Ireland: “The studios and streamers have implemented massive unilateral changes in our industry’s business model, while at the same time insisting on keeping our contracts frozen in amber. That’s not how you treat a valued, respected partner and essential contributor. Their refusal to meaningfully engage with our key proposals and the fundamental disrespect shown to our members is what has brought us to this point. The studios and streamers have underestimated our members’ resolve, as they are about to fully discover.”
The AMPTP issued a statement early this morning saying that “We are deeply disappointed that SAG-AFTRA has decided to walk away from negotiations. This is the Union’s choice, not ours. In doing so, it has dismissed our offer of historic pay and residual increases, substantially higher caps on pension and health contributions, audition protections, shortened series option periods, a groundbreaking AI proposal that protects actors’ digital likenesses, and more. Rather than continuing to negotiate, SAG-AFTRA has put us on a course that will deepen the financial hardship for thousands who depend on the industry for their livelihoods.”
Yesterday marked the 90th anniversary of the founding of the Screen Actors Guild back on July 12, 1933.
In a message to the guild’s members before today’s board meeting, Drescher and Crabtree-Ireland discussed some of the key strike issues, saying that “Over the past decade, your compensation has been severely eroded by the rise of the streaming ecosystem. Furthermore, artificial intelligence poses an existential threat to creative professions, and all actors and performers deserve contract language that protects them from having their identity and talent exploited without consent and pay. Despite our team’s dedication to advocating on your behalf, the AMPTP has refused to acknowledge that enormous shifts in the industry and economy have had a detrimental impact on those who perform labor for the studios.”
They added that although “we’ve engaged in negotiations in good faith and remained eager to reach a deal that sufficiently addressed performer concerns, the AMPTP’s responses to our proposals have not been adequate…Our 90-year history is a testament to what can be achieved through our conviction and unity. For the future of our profession, we stand together.”
The guild’s contract had originally been set to expire on June 30 but was extended until July 12 to allow bargaining to continue. But last-ditch efforts to reach a deal failed on Wednesday. The day before, SAG-AFTRA agreed to the companies’ proposal to bring in a federal mediator but said in a harshly worded statement that it was “not confident that the employers have any intention of bargaining toward an agreement.”
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Blindsided by the AMPTP’s eleventh-hour proposal for federal mediation and insisting that it would not agree to another contract extension, the guild said that “the AMPTP has abused our trust and damaged the respect we have for them in this process. We will not be manipulated by this cynical ploy to engineer an extension when the companies have had more than enough time to make a fair deal.”
The strike will shut down films and scripted TV shows that employ SAG-AFTRA members not just in the United States, but around the world. Soap operas, which fall under a separate contract, are exempted. Under the guild’s Global Rule One, which states that “No member shall render any services or make an agreement to perform services for any employer who has not executed a basic minimum agreement with the union, which is in full force and effect, in any jurisdiction in which there is a SAG-AFTRA national collective bargaining agreement in place. This provision applies worldwide.”
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The decision to strike comes nearly three weeks after members of the Directors Guild overwhelmingly ratified their own new contract, and against the backdrop of a grassroots campaign that urged SAG-AFTRA to stand strong at the bargaining table and “join the WGA on the picket lines” if a major “realignment in our industry” can’t be achieved. More than 1,700 actors, including many prominent SAG-AFTRA members, recently signed off on a letter to guild leaders saying that they “would rather go on strike” and “join the WGA on the picket lines” than compromise on key issues.
That letter, which SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher also signed, said: “This is an unprecedented inflection point in our industry, and what might be considered a good deal in any other years is simply not enough. We feel that our wages, our craft, our creative freedom, and the power of our union have all been undermined in the last decade. We need to reverse those trajectories.”
Prior to the start of contract talks on June 7, SAG-AFTRA laid out some of its key bargaining issues, which include “economic fairness, residuals, regulating the use of artificial intelligence and alleviating the burdens of the industry-wide shift to self-taping.”
Source: Deadline
