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Though officially the nail-biter continues, a SAG-AFTRA strike appears almost certain.
After SAG-AFTRA’s deadline for the expiration of its film and television contracts package passed on Wednesday at midnight with no deal reached with studios and streamers, its negotiating committee unanimously voted to recommend that its National Board call a strike. Though that decision clearly suggests a strike is imminent, the National Board will meet Thursday at 9 a.m. to officially decide whether to call a work stoppage.
“After more than four weeks of bargaining, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) — the entity that represents major studios and streamers, including Amazon, Apple, Disney, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Paramount, Sony and Warner Bros. Discovery — remains unwilling to offer a fair deal on the key issues that are essential to SAG-AFTRA members,” SAG-AFTRA said in a statement early Thursday, near 1 a.m. “In the face of the AMPTP’s intransigence and delay tactics, SAG-AFTRA’s negotiating committee voted unanimously to recommend to the National Board a strike of the Producers-SAG-AFTRA TV/Theatrical/Streaming Contracts which expired July 12, 2023, at 11:59 p.m. PT.”
In its own statement, the AMPTP said it was “deeply disappointed” that SAG-AFTRA wasn’t extending 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,” the statement continued. It added that “SAG-AFTRA has put us on a course that will deepen the financial hardship for thousands who depend on the industry for their livelihoods.”
This development follows a five-week-long negotiation that went down to the wire on Wednesday night, with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers and SAG-AFTRA working on attempting to reach a compromise up until the last minute. A mediator from the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service was present during the talks for just one business day after the AMPTP requested their intervention this week and SAG-AFTRA acceded on Tuesday evening.
In a statement on Thursday morning, union president Fran Drescher said that the AMPTP’s responses to the union’s proposals have been “insulting and disrespectful of our massive contributions to this industry.” She continued, “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.”
A strike, SAG-AFTRA’s first against film and television companies in four decades, would further devastate an already hamstrung industry in the midst of a writers’ strike. All U.S. physical production with union performers that hasn’t already been shut down by the ongoing Writers Guild of America strike would likely be in jeopardy and already-delayed productions might need to push back even further as the AMPTP would need to come to an agreement with not one, but two, guilds on the picket lines.
A “double strike” featuring a writers’ and actors’ work stoppage would be the first to occur since 1960, when Ronald Reagan helmed SAG-AFTRA as president.
SAG-AFTRA’s 2023 negotiations began on June 7 and, when the union’s film and TV contracts package reached its first expiration date of June 30, labor and management decided to extend the talks until July 12. In an open letter to members on June 30, the union’s TV/theatrical negotiating committee wrote that the decision was made “in order to exhaust every opportunity to achieve the righteous contract we all demand and deserve.”
Though negotiations started off positively, with Drescher and national executive director and chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland calling them “extremely productive” in a member video, the tone took a turn in recent days. Starting Monday, SAG-AFTRA began prepping major PR firms and hundreds of agents on potential strike rules, while high-level executives including Warner Bros.-Discovery’s David Zaslav and Disney’s Dana Walden and Alan Bergman convened on calls Monday night, where they surfaced the idea of bringing in a federal mediator.
Now, the industry will wait for the SAG-AFTRA National Board’s official decision to call a work stoppage, which will mark a historic moment in entertainment labor history and escalate the stakes of this summer’s negotiations cycle.
In his own statement on Thursday morning, Crabtree-Ireland said of the AMPTP, “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.”
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