SAG-AFTRA confirms that the actors union in Hollywood secured a tentative agreement with studios on Wednesday to put an end to its strike & months of labour turmoil that brought the film and television industries to a halt. The three-year contract must be approved by the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists board of directors and its members in the coming days, but the union’s leadership has stated that the strike will end at 12:01 a.m. on Thursday. “We are finally at a contract that will allow SAG-AFTRA members from every category to establish sustainable careers,” the union stated in a statement. “Many thousands of performers now and into the foreseeable future will benefit from this work.” It was by far the most prolonged strike ever for film and television performers, lasting over four months.
On July 14, more than 60,000 SAG-AFTRA members went on strike, joining screenwriters who had gone on strike more than two months before. It was the very first time the two unions had gone on strike at the same time since 1960. The studios & writers reached an agreement that ended the strike on September 26. The agreement’s terms weren’t immediately revealed. The union estimated the contract to be worth more than a billion dollars and stated that details would be made public following a meeting of board members on Friday to review the contract. Short-term recompense and future royalty payments for film and television performances, as well as sovereignty over performers’ images & likenesses regenerated with artificial intelligence, were all on the table.
The Sag-Aftra Confirms Actors Strike Ended After The Union Reached A Tentative Agreement With The Studios
The Sag-Aftra union declared on Wednesday that the nearly four-month strike by Hollywood actors would come to an end, putting to an end an unprecedented work stoppage that had paralysed the film & television industries for months. On Wednesday, Sag-Aftra and the Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers (AMPTP) struck a tentative deal, bringing the longest strike by film and television performers to an end about a month following writers signed their new contract. The agreement occurred after the parties began talks last week after they had been delayed since early October. “We accomplished a deal of extraordinary scope in a contract valued at over $1 billion,” the union stated in a public statement. The union stated its victories included higher-than-expected hikes in the minimum wage, a first-time “streaming participation bonus,” and “unprecedented provisions for consent & compensation that would safeguard members from the threat of AI.” Hollywood producers also praised the proposed agreement as setting a new business paradigm.
A new collective bargaining agreement “gives Sag-Aftra the largest contract-on-contract acquisition in its history, including the largest increase in minimum wages in the past 40 years; a brand new residual for streaming programs; extensive compensation and consent protections for artificial intelligence as well as a significant increase in contracts across the board,” the AMPTP said in a statement released late Wednesday night. The union claimed in a statement that the new contract provided what performers on the picket lines had requested: pay raises and rights that would allow “Sag-Aftra members from every category to establish sustainable careers.” “Many thousands of performers now and into the future are going to benefit from this work,” she said. The 118-day strike will be “officially suspended” at 12:01 a.m. on Thursday, according to the union, and all picket lines will close. The organisation said it has struck a preliminary agreement with the AMPTP, which represents Walt Disney, Netflix, and other media businesses, on a new contract. After union members decide to accept the settlement in the coming weeks, Hollywood will be able to resume full production for the first time since May. The union had battled for higher base pay for residuals as well as safeguards against the use of artificial intelligence in cinema and television, which were worries shared by writers who fought for similar provisions in their contract.