Back in June, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) approved a motion to strike ahead of the negotiation span ending tomorrow in light of the ongoing writers’ strike. SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher revealed an update stating negotiations were still underway and the Guild is “standing strong and we are going to achieve a seminal deal.”
Now the Actors’ SAG-AFTRA has agreed to delay the strike until July 12th. This will give both sides more time to work on a deal to avoid the strike.
“In order to exhaust every opportunity to achieve the righteous contract we all demand and deserve, after thorough deliberation it was unanimously decided to allow additional time to negotiate by extending the contract,” said Fran Drescher, the star of the 1990s sitcom “The Nanny” and the current president of SAG-AFTRA, in email to members Friday night according to CNN.
Since then, hundreds of SAG-AFTRA members have made it clear they have doubts a suitable deal will be achieved by tomorrow. As reported by Rolling Stone, over 300 actors pledged to stand firm on striking if negotiations don’t pan out as hoped, signing a letter sent to the SAG-AFTRA Leadership and Negotiating Committee.
“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. 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.”
SAG-AFTRA members are fighting for streaming residuals, minimum pay requirements, access to healthcare, pensions, new regulations regarding auditions as well as safeguards surrounding the use of AI technology using their likeness.
“We do not believe that SAG-AFTRA members can afford to make halfway gains in anticipation that more will be coming in three years, and we think it is absolutely vital that this negotiation protects not just our likenesses, but makes sure we are well compensated when any of our work is used to train AI. If you are not able to get all the way there, we ask that you use the power given to you by us, the membership, and join the WGA on the picket lines. For our union and its future, this is our movement. We hope that, on our behalf, you will meet that moment and not miss it.”
For now, we will have to wait and see what happens with the talks, but if a strike happens, it could delay the return of many popular TV shows.