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SAG-AFTRA is officially on strike.
The national board voted unanimously to approve a strike recommendation during its Thursday meeting, according to Variety.
“Union members should withhold their labor until a fair contract can be achieved,” Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, national executive director and chief negotiator of SAG-AFTRA, told the room. “They have left us with no alternative.”
The strike is set to begin Thursday, at midnight, with picketing beginning the following Friday morning.
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“We are being victimized by a very greedy enterprise,” SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher added. “At some point you have to say ‘no, we’re not going to take this anymore. You people are crazy. What are you doing? Why are you doing this?’”
This marks the second time in history that both Hollywood actors and writers have been on strike together.
“If we don’t stand tall right now, we are all going to be in jeopardy,” she continued, speaking on the changing landscape with AI technology and streaming services. “You cannot change the business model as much as it has been changed and not expect the contract to change too.”
The union contract expired on Wednesday, following months of failed negotiations.
On the Alliance of Motion Pictures Television Producers’ side, they countered that they offered a deal with “historic pay and residual increases” along with “substantially higher caps on pension and health contributions” and other benefits. The deal supposedly included a “groundbreaking” AI proposal that would have protected actors’ digital likenesses for union members.
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“A strike is 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 said in a statement. “The Union has regrettably chosen a path that will lead to financial hardship for countless thousands of people who depend on the industry.”
The strike will bring all SAG-AFTRA TV and film contract projects to a halt not only in the United States, but also across the globe.
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