Members of the Screen Actors Guild will join members of the Writers Guild of America in their strike starting at midnight on Thursday, according to an article from CNBC News.
The move to join writers on strike comes after failed negotiations between the SAG’s American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.
According to CNBC, actors sought to “improve wages, working conditions and health and pension benefits, as well as create guardrails for the use of artificial intelligence in future television and film productions.”
This historic decision by SAG-AFTRA to strike will result in the first tandem strike in Hollywood since the 1960s.
SAG also reportedly asked for greater communication and more equitable residual payments from online streaming providers in their negotiations with the AMPTP.
Get The Daily Illini in your inbox!
According to CNBC, AMPTP offered a statement in response to SAG-AFTRA’s decision to strike.
AMPTP claims that it “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.”
According to the article, “Oppenheimer” actors reportedly left the film’s London premiere date in solidarity with the SAG-AFTRA negotiators ahead of their most recent call.
In her opening remarks at a press conference following the strike announcement on Thursday afternoon, SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher — best known for her performance on “The Nanny” — said that television and film executives prioritize “Wall Street and greed” over their actors or even the quality of their work.
“It’s important that this negotiation be covered, because the eyes of the world — and particularly the eyes of labor — are upon us,” Drescher said. “What happens here is important, because what’s happening to us is happening across all fields of labor.”
