SAG-AFTRA goes on strike at midnight tonight

After weeks of unsuccessful negotiations between the Screen Actors Guild – American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), the union representing about 160,000 of the entertainment industry’s American laborers will begin striking at midnight tonight

On Wednesday evening, just hours after the nominees for this year’s Emmy Awards were announced and not long after the already-extended deadline to hammer out a new labor contract came and went, SAG-AFTRA announced that its board would convene on Thursday morning to decide whether to follow in the Writers Guild of America’s footsteps by striking. In a statement about the latest developments, SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher said that while the union wanted very much to reach a new deal through negotiations, “the AMPTP’s responses to the union’s most important proposals have been insulting and disrespectful.”

“The companies have refused to meaningfully engage on some topics and on others completely stonewalled us,” Drescher said. “Until they do negotiate in good faith, we cannot begin to reach a deal.”

Following the deadline’s passing, the AMPTP also released a statement expressing disappointment, blaming SAG-AFTRA for the negotiations’ dissolution, and insisting that the union was not acting in its members’ interests when it “decided to walk away” from contract talks.

“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 AMPTP lamented. “Rather than continuing to negotiate, SAG-AFTRA has put us on a course that will deepen the financial hardship for thousands who depend on the industry for their livelihoods.”

In the days after less than half (41 percent) of the Directors Guild of America’s eligible voters agreed to ratify a contract that many of its members had serious concerns about, the AMPTP turned its focus to SAG-AFTRA, which, like the WGA, has identified the industry’s adoption of AI tools as one of the more pressing matters that need to be addressed as studios rush to embrace the technology.

Back at the beginning of June, when 98 percent of SAG-AFTRA’s members voted to authorize a strike, the union had already made it abundantly clear that its desire for more thorough protections (by way of regulations) against AI tools was a sticking point it’s not budging on. By June 30th, four weeks into the WGA’s ongoing strike that had already shut down the vast majority of film and TV productions here in the US, there hadn’t been any discernible progress between SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP.

The talks were extended to July 12th in hopes that a few extra days of negotiations might move the needle, and SAG-AFTRA — which represents about 160,000 workers — told its members that it planned to “exhaust every opportunity to achieve the righteous contract we all demand and deserve.”

In addition to AI regulations, the “truly transformative” new deal SAG-AFTRA’s members have been advocating for would include better minimum wages across the board, more access to quality healthcare, and a revamped residual payments system that more equitably compensates the workers whose labor has translated to studios’ record-breaking profits in the streaming era.

Despite SAG-AFTRA — which represents thousands of actors, broadcasters, and performers of all kinds — having been consistent in its demands for a new contract throughout the negotiation process, Deadline reported on Monday that the AMPTP was effectively asking actors to trust them to forge “a solid pathway” forward. With the most recent season of Black Mirror and its “Joan Is Awful” episode reportedly spooking the hell out of many SAG-AFTRA members who saw it as a glimpse into their futures, trusting the AMPTP to have their best interests at heart does not seem to be an option that was given much consideration.

By Monday evening, a number of senior executives from various studios, including Warner Bros. Discovery’s David Zaslav, Netflix’s Ted Sarandos, and Disney’s Dana Walden and Alan Bergman, had reportedly jumped on a last-minute conference call to discuss potential strike-avoiding options, including bringing in the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service.

When SAG-AFTRA agreed to initially extend the contract negotiation deadline earlier this summer, it assured its members that they had no reason to see the move as a sign of weakness or kowtowing to the AMPTP but rather the union making a good faith effort at working out a new deal. Though SAG-AFTRA agreed to the AMPTP’s call for federally assisted mediation, it also pointedly called the request out as the producers’ way of trying to orchestrate another extension, which the actors have no plans to agree to.

“The AMPTP has abused our trust and damaged the respect we have for them in this process,” the union said. “We will not be manipulated by this cynical ploy to engineer an extension when the companies have had more than enough time to make a fair deal.”

It’s been reported that the AMPTP’s plan is to keep prolonging this fight until “union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses.” But a very similar prospect — the possibility of being driven out of the industry by a system designed to ensure that profits remain concentrated among a select few — is exactly why the writers and actors are striking in the first place. The AMPTP has said that it’s “committed to reaching a deal and getting our industry back to work,” and that may be the case. But if it truly is, all the producers need to do is to meet the unions and the workers they represent where they’re at — it’s just that simple.

Disclosure: The Verge’s editorial staff is also unionized with the Writers Guild of America, East.

This story is developing…