#american federation of television and radio artists

[emuanon34]

LET’S MOTHERFUCKING GOOOOOOOOO!

[bkenber]

The SAG/AFTRA Strike Continues on at Warner Brothers Studios

It has been a bit, but I finally made the time to walk the picket line in support of the SAG/AFTRA strike. The WGA strike concluded after 148 days after a tentative agreement with the AMPTP was reached, but many of their members still took the time to join the picket line in continued support of the union’s efforts to gain a fair contract. While I have traveled to different strike locations in…

[darkangel1791]

Hollywood actors are going on strike after contract negotiations fail

The entertainment industry is already at a standstill because of a writers strike.

July 13, 2023, 4:12 AM EDT / Updated July 13, 2023, 3:16 PM EDT

By Daniel Arkin

NBC.com

LOS ANGELES — Thousands of Hollywood actors are heading to the picket lines after their labor union and a trade group representing the industry's leading studios failed to reach a deal on a new contract, grinding film and television production to a halt.

The national board of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, or SAG-AFTRA, voted unanimously Thursday morning to go on strike, the guild announced at an afternoon news conference.

The picket lines will start to form on Friday.

"What happens here is important because what's happening to us is happening across all fields of labor, by means of when employers make Wall Street and greed their priority and they forget about the essential contributors that make the machine run," SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher said.

The guild’s members, rattled by the economics of the streaming era and the rise of unregulated digital technologies, seek higher base compensation and safeguards around the use of artificial intelligence, among other demands. Hollywood's writers are already striking over similar issues.

In a news release early Thursday, SAG-AFTRA said that, after more than four weeks of bargaining, the trade association that represents major companies such as Disney, Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery “remains unwilling to offer a fair deal on the key issues that are essential" to its members.

Drescher, who starred on the sitcom “The Nanny,” said in that statement her guild “negotiated in good faith,” but “the AMPTP’s responses to the union’s most important proposals have been insulting and disrespectful of our massive contributions to this industry.”

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the group representing the studios, said the strike was "certainly not the outcome we hoped for as studios cannot operate without the performers that bring our TV shows and films to life."

"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," the group said.

"The Union has regrettably chosen a path that will lead to financial hardship for countless thousands of people who depend on the industry," the group added.

The strike will be limited to film and television productions. The walkout will not involve SAG-AFTRA members who work in the news business, such as certain broadcast hosts and announcers.

The announcement comes more than two months after the Writers Guild of America, a union that represents film and television scribes, started striking amid its own dispute with the AMPTP. (The group represents Comcast, the corporation that owns NBCUniversal; some employees of the NBCUniversal News Group are represented by the WGA.)

The writers walkout halted most television production, delayed the filming of some high-profile movies and sent late-night talk shows into reruns. The actors strike will likely force other sets to go dark.

SAG-AFTRA members authorized a strike June 5 by an overwhelming margin: 97.91% of the almost 65,000 members who cast votes. The guild began negotiating with the top studios and streaming services two days later.

The union’s existing contract with the major studios originally expired at 11:59 p.m. PT June 30, but both sides agreed to continue negotiations and extended the talks until midnight on July 12.

SAG-AFTRA has argued that performers have been undermined by the new economics of streaming entertainment and threatened by emerging technologies. 

The guild is seeking increased base compensation for performers, which union leaders say has declined as streaming-first studios pivot away from paying out residuals to talent and inflation takes its toll on the economy in general.

The union’s actors are also alarmed by the threat posed by the unrelated use of AI (such as tools that can make digital replacements for recognizable stars) and the cost of “self-taped auditions” — videos that used to be paid for by casting departments and production offices.

In recent weeks, some in the entertainment business worried that all three major Hollywood guilds — SAG-AFTRA, WGA and the Directors Guild of America, or DGA — would walk off the job simultaneously.

But that will not be the case since the Directors Guild announced in early June it had reached a “truly historic” tentative agreement with the studios.

Daniel Arkin is a national reporter at NBC News.

[strazcenter]

There’s Power in a Union

The United Auto Workers has begun a series of targeted strikes which may expand to most or all of its 145,000 members walking off the job. The Writers Guild of America has been on strike since May, disrupting pretty much any show with a script. The strike has disrupted everything from the Emmys® to The Drew Barrymore Show. Even if the shows had scripts, who would learn the lines? The Screen…

[wttnblog]

Standing in Solidarity With the WGA and SAG-AFTRA

On May 2nd, 2023, the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) union went on strike to protest poor pay and living conditions that they, as TV and Film writers, are suffering from. Last week, the Screen Actors Guild — American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) joined them with grievances of their own. It is crucial to stand with these union members as they fight for the compensation…

[thetimelordbatgirl]

Bob Iger saying all this while also being on basically billionaires vacation really should say something, holy shit.

[fluffykittensox]

SAG-AFTRA ‘s statement via Twitter (x) just an hour ago

“SAG-AFTRA will meet for bargaining on Monday, October 2. Several executives from AMPTP member companies will be on attendance. As negotiations proceed, we will report any substantial updates directly to you.”

[cyarskj1899]

fluffykittensox 

10h ago

SAG-AFTRA ‘s statement via Twitter (x) just an hour ago

“SAG-AFTRA will meet for bargaining on Monday, October 2. Several executives from AMPTP member companies will be on attendance. As negotiations proceed, we will report any substantial updates directly to you.”

[afusionoffandoms]

They fucking changed it today to try and stop uBlock from working, the motherfuckers. Stop crossing the goddamn picket line with Netflix and then maybe we wouldn't be so fucking done with you @changes @staff

[ncisla-source]

📣📣📣📣📣📣📣📣📣 calling all @sagaftra members! THE TIME IS NOW! I implore you to write a letter in support of a strike authorization vote ASAP! Let’s not forget, they represent US. So, make your voice heard. Share this post! E-mail your letter to: governance@sagaftra.org serena.kung@sagaftra.org ATTN: ALL National Board Members and Officers: The working people of our industry greatly outnumber the studio executives. If we stand together against their corporate greed, we will win. 👊👊👊

[itsawritblr]

As a professional writer I support the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.

[bkenber]

Walking the WGA and SAG/AFTRA Picket Line at Paramount Studios

On July 20, 2023, I did something I had been meaning to do for a long time: walk the picket line alongside members of the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) and the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG/AFTRA). Both unions are in a furious labor dispute with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) as streaming has forever changed the…

[darkangel1791]

Why Actors Are Going on Strike

BY LAURA ZORNOSA

Time.com

UPDATED: JULY 12, 2023 4:37 PM EDT | ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: JULY 12, 2023 4:28 PM EDT

Just after midnight on the West Coast, the contracts between the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) expired—meaning that a deal between the two had not been reached. SAG-AFTRA’s negotiating committee unanimously voted to recommend a strike to its national board, which is expected to formally announce the strike on Thursday.

On June 5, nearly 65,000 of the approximately 160,000 members that make up SAG-AFTRA approved a strike authorization with a 97.91% “yes” vote. The union includes actors, dancers, DJs, puppeteers, recording artists, singers, stunt performers, voiceover artists, and other media professionals.

Two days later, SAG-AFTRA entered negotiations on its agreement with the AMPTP, including Amazon/MGM, Apple, NBCUniversal, Disney/ABC/Fox, Netflix, Paramount/CBS, Sony, and Warner Brothers. On June 30, the contracts between the two were extended, and they now expire at midnight on Wednesday.

“There has been a sea change in the entertainment industry, from the proliferation of streaming platforms to the recent explosion of generative AI, and at stake is the ability of our members to make a living,” Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator, said in a letter about the strike authorization referendum. “We must ensure that new developments in the entertainment industry are not used to devalue or disrespect the performers who bring productions to life.”

On Tuesday, SAG-AFTRA agreed to AMPTP’s last-minute request for federal mediation, which would bring in a neutral third party to help work toward a compromise. SAG-AFTRA clarified, though, that it would not extend the negotiations for a second time.

“We will not be distracted from negotiating in good faith to secure a fair and just deal by the expiration of our agreement,” the guild said in a press release. “We are committed to the negotiating process and will explore and exhaust every possible opportunity to make a deal, however we are not confident that the employers have any intention of bargaining toward an agreement.”

Among SAG-AFTRA’s demands are increased minimum pay rates, increased streaming residuals (neither of which have kept up with inflation), and improved working conditions. Royalty payments, which are contingent on the number of a show’s reruns, are no longer reliable. Streaming, which has shifted to shorter seasons over longer periods of time, has made less work available to actors. And union members want guarantees from studio and production companies about how, exactly, artificial intelligence will be used—they want to protect their likenesses and make sure they are well compensated when any of their work is used to train AI.

On June 27, more than 300 actors—including Meryl Streep, Quinta Brunson, and Jennifer Lawrence—signed a letter to the SAG-AFTRA Leadership and Negotiating Committee stating that “SAG-AFTRA members may be ready to make sacrifices that leadership is not.”

“We hope you’ve heard the message from us: This is an unprecedented inflection point in our industry, and what might be considered a good deal in any other years is simply not enough,” the letter reads. “We feel that our wages, our craft, our creative freedom, and the power of our union have all been undermined in the last decade. We need to reverse those trajectories.”

When was the last time SAG-AFTRA went on strike?

SAG-AFTRA has a long history of strikes and boycotts. In 2021, the union barred Donald Trump from ever rejoining because he obstructed the peaceful transfer of power to Joe Biden—and because of his attacks on journalists. (Trump had resigned from the group earlier that month.)

In 2018, SAG-AFTRA announced a strike against the global advertising agency Bartle Bogle Hegarty after the advertising agency stated that it would no longer honor its long-standing contract with the union. Ten months later, the advertising agency agreed to sign SAG-AFTRA’s new commercials contract.

SAG and AFTRA, which merged in 2012, went on strike together for the first time in 2016, against eleven American video game developers and publishers, which became the longest strike within SAG.

In 2000, before they merged, SAG and AFTRA issued a controversial six-month work stoppage over the protocol for paying actors who appear in TV commercials. Twenty years prior, SAG and AFTRA jointly called for a successful boycott against 1980s’ Emmy Awards, striking for an increase in minimum salaries.

How the ongoing writers’ strike factors in

In 1960, SAG went on strike against AMPTP over pay, joining the Writers Guild of America (WGA), which had already been on strike for more than a month with similar demands, largely over pay rates. That marked the first industry-wide strike in Hollywood.

In a historical echo, today, the WGA has been on strike since early May. If SAG-AFTRA’s demands are not met this time around, it will join the WGA on strike, bringing Hollywood to a near standstill. In preparation, SAG-AFTRA has called for volunteers to serve as strike captains, and WGA captains—already on strike at several studios—have offered training from the picket lines.

What this means for movies and TV shows

If SAG-AFTRA members do go on strike, any film or TV production that has not already been halted by the WGA strike will essentially shut down. Overseas productions, in particular, where studios have tried to continue shooting some shows without WGA writer-producers, are likely to feel the impact.

[911bts]

Okay I wanna clarify something real quick..

SAG-AFTRA is the Screen Actors Guild and the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. So actors (and more) union.

WGA is the Writers Guild of America. So writers union.

They went on strike last year. They went on strike because of a lot of things but things like AI and residuals were big topics.

IATSE is International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. So the crew is under this.

They almost went on strike a few years ago but made a deal before it reached that point. (The union members vote on a contract that it was just over a 50/50 on the for and against. But ultimately it ended up being a a touch more on the for side).

Their contract is up for renewal right now and they are actively negotiating. If those talks don't end in a deal at the end of July, they will most likely strike.