SAG-AFTRA Strike Begins in New York and L.A. With Celebrities, Signs and Chants: ‘Logan Roy Would Pay Us More’

William Earl
·12 min read
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After SAG-AFTRA leadership announced that the union would be going on strike, picketing began on Friday. In New York City and Los Angeles, actors have joined writers outside the studios, picketing and rallying outside of Netflix, Warner Bros. Discovery, Disney, Amazon, NBCUniversal and others in both cities.

Corporate greed was at the center of messaging on day one of the joint picketing from SAG-AFTRA and the WGA.

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When the bus carrying SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher and the rest of the negotiating committee arrived outside of Netflix’s LA offices, they were mobbed by media and fellow protesters as they inched their way down the sidewalk along Sunset Boulevard.

Drescher delivered a passionate speech at the Thursday press conference announcing the strike, and showed up to today’s protests equally ready to fight fire with fire. When asked by Variety Friday about Disney CEO Bob Iger’s recent comments about the strike, Drescher labeled the remarks as “repugnant,” read her full statement here.

Tatiana Zappardino, a series regular on “Tulsa King” who has also appeared on “This Is Us” and “NCIS: New Orleans,” turned up at the Netflix picket with her one-month-old daughter.

“I’ve received residual checks for 50 cents,” the SAG-AFTRA member said, rocking her baby in a stroller. “I’m looking forward to a fair contract this year, not having my image used to make someone another billion.”

As the heat ticked past 85 degrees at Netflix, actor Dermot Mulroney accepted sunscreen from a fellow picketer. “This is solidarity,” the star said as he slathered lotion on his arms. Mulroney declined an interview because, “I’m too emotional right now to talk. This is crazy.”

WGA and SAG-AFTRA members carried signs that read: “Your poor Montana ranch!”; “I’m trying to pay my rent, not my third and fourth mortgage and fuel my private jet!”; “ChatGPT can suck my D”; and “Logan Roy would pay us more.”

Across Los Angeles at the Paramount lot picketers were chanting, “L.A. is a union town” with plenty of honks of support from vehicles passing by. Co-creator of “Parks and Recreation” and “The Good Place,” Michael Schur shared his thoughts on Hollywood problem with residuals outside the gates. “My wife [J. J. Philbin] is also a writer, she just recently received a residual check for 11 cents,” Schur said. “I get them for four cents and three cents and two cents like and not for shows that we were on 25 years ago. But for shows that we run for fairly recently. It’s insulting. That stamp to send this year was higher than the amount of money that you’re paying us, what’s the point?”

Sean Astin, out picketing with Caitlin Dulany showed solidarity on the current problem with residuals. “Are we gig-workers or do we have continuing financial participation in the products we help create,” Astin asked. “Residuals have been sort of an emblem of that. As linear and cable television has wained and as streaming has blossomed we’ve been squeezed out.”

Also spotted at Paramount was “Jury Duty” star Alan Barinholtz and his son Ike.

At the Warner Bros., SAG members chanted, “Hey hey! Hi hi! We are actors, not AI.” And celebrities such as Ben Schwartz (“The After-Party”) and Mandy Moore (“This Is Us”) were spotted outside of Disney.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass issued the following statement after the unanimous decision from SAG-AFTRA to strike, “With more than one hundred thousand workers now participating in an unprecedented strike, it is clear the entertainment industry is at a historic inflection point. This affects all of us and is essential to our overall economy. I call upon all sides to come to the table and work around the clock until an equitable agreement is reached. This is an urgent issue that must be resolved and I will be working to make that happen.”

Despite the sweltering heat, striking does have its perks. A churro truck was provided by strike captains at Netflix. Gratis tacos, brownies and popsicles were circulated at Disney. Local restaurants offered up their restrooms.

Meanwhile, on the East Coast the rain didn’t stop actor Anthony Rapp and partner Ken Ithiphol from showing up to the Netflix/Warner Bros. Discovery picket lines with their infant son, Rai Larson, on Rapp’s shoulders.

“I did a few episodes of ‘The Knick’ several years ago and it’s on some form of streaming now and I get like $1.25 in residuals a couple times a year,” Rapp said, backing up the low streaming residuals reported by fellow SAG-AFTRA members as a key issue in the strike. “I did a couple episodes of ‘The Good Fight,’ again, $3 residuals, $1.50 residuals.”

Rapp added: “Residuals were born, initially, out of the 1960 strike, which is the last time the writers and actors struck together. Before that, all the people who were on ‘I Love Lucy,’ ‘The Honeymooners,’ never saw a further penny from the however many, in today’s dollars, millions of dollars that the studios and networks made off of those shows. So that was the first time we were able to make the case, ‘You’re continuing to profit off of the labor that we provided. There would not be these products if it weren’t for our labor, so we should benefit from the continuing service of that.’ And yes, streaming, these things live on their surfaces or they simply take them off so they don’t have to pay residuals anymore. We’re in an entirely new landscape and the companies have not met us halfway to account for the differences.”

Also spotted holding the line among approximately 200 pickets at the 888 Broadway location were Heléne Yorke (“The Other Two”), Megan Boone (“The Blacklist”), Merritt Wever (“Run”) “and “Severance” star Zach Cherry. Sources confirmed Susan Sarandon had been picketing with the group before Variety arrived on the scene. Protestors fought the weather with ponchos and played “It’s Raining Men” for all to hear.

Up at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, the main location for NBCUniversal, strike captains spoke with Variety about the key issues at hand, including AI, and emphasized their opinion that the studios refuse to meet them halfway.

“The last time we were out on this [master] contract, the actors, we were out for five weeks,” strike Richard Masser told Variety. “But the last time we were out on another contract, which was the commercial contract, we were out for six months, and the difference was communication. So I’m hoping that our employers on this contract are going to wake up, smell the coffee and come back to the table and talk to us.”

Fellow strike captain Kevin Scullin added: “For the writers, too, because we’re all in this together. We’ve always been in together, but now we’re really in it together. And we’re walking in the trenches now.”

Near the New York HBO and Amazon headquarters, around 70 picketers gathered on the line. SAG-AFTRA members were joined by a smattering of members of other unions, including the WGA, the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), the Communications Workers of America (CWA), and the Laborers’ International Union of North America (LIUNA).

“Without the writers and actors you have nothing,” said SAG-AFTRA member Nubia at the HBO/Amazon picket line. “We’ve got to make sure that everyone is taken care of so everyone can thrive. It’s a shame we have to be here, but SAG is strong, the unity is strong, and at the end of the day we will win.”

However, Nubia and her friend, fellow SAG-AFTRA member Imoya Monroque, said they would have liked to see more transparency from Drescher and the negotiating team, Drescher’s fiery speech notwithstanding.

“It’s really hard for me to say that I appreciate that speech when there wasn’t transparency to begin with,” Nubia said. “I must stand here with sincerity and say I am a union member and I stand with the union members because at the end of the day it’s all of us that are suffering and are out of work.” Nubia is currently running for SAG-AFTRA office.

The fourth SAG-AFTRA picket location in New York City was outside Paramount Global’s offices in Times Square, where New York Local SAG-AFTRA president Ezra Knight gave a speech, and more than 150 pickets gathered.

Beyond film and television productions shutting down, SAG members have many other things they are limited from doing, including any promotion for completed work, attending award shows or film festivals, and even discussing work on social media.

Later in the day, as the temperature rose in Los Angeles, strike captains and WGA and SAG-AFTRA support staff dispensed sunscreen and water bottles and urged members to keep hydrated and take breaks.

Outside of Amazon Studios in Culver City, the picket line that has manned by WGA for more than two months was energized by the influx of SAG-AFTRA members, many of whom had already out in force in support of the WGA.

A number of actors noted that the WGA ‘s labor action, which began May 2, helped them prepare for the emotional jolt of going on strike. But it was still an emotional experience to begin the union’s first work stoppage in more than 40 years.

Chad Doreck, who has been a member of SAG-AFTRA since he was a child, called it “harrowing.” He went through SAG’s commercials strike in 2000 and has been involved in shorter labor actions against video game companies. But this time around, the financial pain faced by working actors has become so acute and the threats on the horizon from AI mean that it’s time for the union to get on its feet and fight.

“You can’t make incremental changes when the business model has changed so dramatically,” Doreck said, echoing pointed comments made Thursday by SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher. He pointed to past history of union contract battles and instances when the creative guilds were short-changed of revenue from home video sales.

The dawn of the streaming era of television brought with it a bonanza of work, but the repercussions of that unprecedented ramp-up of content production are now becoming clear.

“The pro is that there’s a lot more work now. The con is that they don’t want to pay you as much,” Doreck said. “I booked a very large amount of jobs last year and barely qualified for my medical insurance. Where had this been 10 years ago, and I had booked the same amount of jobs, I would have money in my savings account that I don’t have right now. I’m living paycheck to paycheck in the most extreme way.”

Actor Ajarae Coleman also walked the loop around the iconic Culver Studios lot (now home of Amazon Studios) on Day 1 of SAG-AFTRA’s historic action. She felt the onset of a formal work stoppage was a necessary step to addressing the issues facing working actors.

“I work primarily in television and commercials. And I’ve just seen such a huge difference in the residuals that I receive from work that I’ve done for broadcast shows versus for streamers,” she said. As others have noted, the pay scales are most generous in broadcast TV than for streaming, but those jobs are fewer and far between.

“It’s impossible for us to maintain a middle-class standard of living. They don’t even want us to make the amount of money that would keep up with inflation. You know, it’s like, so we’re just supposed to take less and less and less, how are we supposed to maintain lives as professional actors,” Coleman said.

There was a revitalized energy at Warner Bros. Studios as SAG-AFTRA joined the WGA on strike on Friday.

“I’ve been involved in SAG over the years and I would definitely say that it seems a lot more urgent only because they are threatening our livelihood, as well as a number of disrespectful quotes that we’re not worth it, that they’d rather see people starve and left out on the street before they give us a fair deal. Hopefully, we’ll be able to get out here as long as we need to,” said SAG-AFTRA Strike Captain Terry Wilkerson.

Pre-guild members were also out showing their solidarity with the guilds as members of organizations like Black Boy Writes, Black Girl Writes, and Tribe (which were founded by Black creators Mike Gauyo and Amy Aniobi) gathered to picket.

Gauyo marched with a sign that read, “Not Great, Bob! (Iger, Backish, etc.)” The Disney CEO recently commented on the WGA and SAG strike on Thursday, calling the disruption “very disturbing” and categorizing the demands from both labor organizations as “not realistic.”

To which, Gauyo had a response: “There’s an undertone or an undercurrent when we’re talking that makes it seem as though writers and actors are enraged and that we should be grateful for what we have, for the money that we are making. When in fact, I can say for myself, I’m an extremely grateful person. I’m very grateful for my parents to come to this country with nothing and to be able to build a life for me,” he said.

“I’ve worked very hard to get to where I am and everything that I currently have. I know that anything and everything can be taken from any of us at any point. I walk in gratitude always. So, the idea that these networks can come and tell us that we are ungrateful for what we have is ridiculous. Insane, especially when you are speaking to so many of us who are lucky to be able to do what we are doing as creators because we know not everyone is able to do that.”

Reporting by Matt Donnelly, Clayton Davis, Adam B. Vary, Cynthia Littleton, Emily Longeretta, Jazz Tangcay, BreAnna Bell, Joe Otterson and Jennifer Maas.

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