Actors Strike Begins Midnight Tonight: SAG-AFTRA to Start Work Stoppage Against Studios
UPDATE 3:15 p.m. ET: The actors are about to join the writers on strike.
The Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) announced Thursday that its National Board has issued a strike order against the studios after the guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) together failed to reach a deal on a new minimum bargaining agreement ahead of their current contract expiring by midnight on July 12. Their contract was meant to expire on June 30, but the two sides extended talks until July 12 in an effort to avert a strike.
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“A strike is an instrument of last resort,” Lead negotiator Duncan Crabtree Ireland announced the news from the SAG-AFTRA building in Los Angeles. “Unfortunately they have left us with no alternative.”
“We have a problem, we are experiencing that right at this moment, this is a very seminal hour for us,” SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher said Thursday afternoon. “I went in in earnest thinking we would be able to avert the strike. The gravity of this move is not lost on me.”
She continued: “We are the victims here. We are being victimized by a very greedy entity.”
Immediately after the announcement, the AMPTP sent in a press release the many details that they said they proposed, which includes “groundbreaking” proposals on AI and double digit increases in pay and other boosts in residuals.
“AMPTP member companies entered the negotiations with SAG-AFTRA with the goal of forging a new, mutually beneficial contract,” the statement reads. “The AMPTP presented a deal that offered historic pay and residual increases, substantially higher caps on pension and health contributions, audition protections, shortened series option periods, and a groundbreaking AI proposal that protects actors’ digital likenesses for SAG-AFTRA members. A strike is certainly not the outcome we hoped for as studios cannot operate without the performers that bring our TV shows and films to life. The Union has regrettably chosen a path that will lead to financial hardship for countless thousands of people who depend on the industry.”
Actors among the guild’s over 160,000 members will hit the picket lines Friday morning, and the guild will today send members its formal strike rules, which will require that actors refrain from participating in any promotional press — past, present or future — or from their representatives negotiating any talent deals.
While the writers have halted a majority of productions, the actors joining them Friday will lead to virtually all production shutting down across Hollywood and internationally and threatens to delay or disrupt the Emmys, upcoming movie premieres, and other awards shows or film festivals depending on the length of the strike.
As to how long this strike lasts, Drescher said that the guild is willing to return to the negotiating table as early as tonight, but said it’s up to the AMPTP “to talk in a normal way that honors what we do.”
“They are well aware of what it takes to make a deal,” Crabtree-Ireland said. “They have the power in their hand to make a deal and avoid this strike, and they chose not to do that.”
The guild’s major demands included improved residuals, higher minimum wages, and regulations around self-taped auditions, as well as guardrails around the use of AI. The guild said early Thursday morning the AMPTP remained unwilling to reach a fair deal on key issues.
“SAG-AFTRA 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,” union president Fran Drescher said in a statement early Thursday. “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. We have no choice but to move forward in unity, and on behalf of our membership, with a strike recommendation to our National Board. The board will discuss the issue this morning and will make its decision.”
National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland added, “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.”
“We are deeply disappointed that SAG-AFTRA has decided to walk away from negotiations. This is the Union’s choice, not ours,” the AMPTP said in a statement early Thursday. “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.”
Negotiations between SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP began on June 7. Before negotiations began, members approved a strike authorization vote with nearly 98 percent of members who participated saying they’d be willing to hit the picket lines, which gave SAG-AFTRA added leverage heading into talks. More recently, thousands of actors signed a letter aimed at SAG leadership saying they were both willing to strike and willing to “make sacrifices that leadership is not” in order to get a transformative deal.
Agency heavyweights also made last-minute pleas to avert a strike, with Ari Emanuel of WME, Bryan Lourd of CAA, and Jeremy Zimmer of UTA all making calls to SAG-AFTRA leadership offering their support as potential mediators. And on Wednesday, both sides agreed to a federal, third party mediator in an attempt to avert a strike, ultimately to no avail.
Earlier in the week, Drescher was criticized for appearing in a publicity photo with Kim Kardashian at a fashion event in Milan. Crabtree-Ireland defended his guild’s president and called it “outrageous and despicable” that employers would try and turn members against their union’s president for doing their job. Both Crabtree-Ireland and Drescher were flanked by a large group of the negotiating committee, which collectively snapped their fingers in support of her.
The actors last went on strike against the studios back in 1980 for three months and three days in a fight over home video residuals, one that shut down film and TV production and even saw actors boycotting the Emmys.
It will now be a two-guild strike, something that hasn’t happened for 63 years, with the writers having been on strike for over two months since May 1. The writers strike has already halted development, and production on many new shows and movies has been either temporarily or indefinitely put on hold until a strike is over, and many writers and showrunners have seen their overall deals with studios suspended.
While there was a threat that all three of the major guilds could find themselves on the picket line, the DGA reached their own tentative deal with the studios back on June 4, and despite some vocal dissent from some hyphenate writers-directors, DGA membership officially ratified the new deal on June 23 with 87 percent of the 6,728 members who voted choosing to ratify it.
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