It’s over. Hollywood has put an end to the nightmare that has kept the industry in suspense for 118 days. The strike of actors in the United States that started last July is coming to an end. After 15 intense days of negotiations, with some of conversations and others of pause for reflection, from the actors’ union, the SAG-AFTRA negotiating committee has reached a tentative agreement signed “unanimously”, as they have announced in a statement, explaining that the strike will end definitively as soon as it begins on Thursday, November 9. With the agreement, both the minimum wage of workers and the contributions to their health and pension funds will be improved, payments called residual (those that the performers receive after the broadcast on television, and now on the platforms, of their series and films) and there will be new rules that will regulate the use of artificial intelligence, a workhorse until the end of the strike, according to to know exclusively the newspaper Los Angeles Times. As already happened in the writers’ strike, the 160,000 actors of the guild will have to vote on its approval on Friday, and there the details of the pact will be known. In his case, 99% of the writers approved the proposal.
Getting here has been a long and complex journey, which has only come to fruition when both parties have taken the work fully seriously. It all started on Tuesday, October 24, which was marked in red on the agendas of the entire film industry. After 103 days of strike, it became a key day because, finally, negotiations were resumed, paralyzed in bad ways a couple of weeks before. There was an intention to reach an agreement on both sides. The top representatives of the actors union sat down to chat with four heads of four major studios. Bob Iger, from Disney, was the instigator of the conversation – after calling the head of the negotiations, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, by phone the previous Saturday and inviting him to return to the table -, which was joined by Ted Sarandos, from Netflix ; Universal’s Donna Langley; and David Zaslav, from Warner Bros. Since then, a substantial improvement in the conditions offered by large companies to actors was expected.
That Tuesday the 24th there were no conclusions. The union called for the next day, but on Wednesday they decided to go one day further. As they explained it’s a statement, They preferred to spend that day “reviewing the proposal made by the studies.” “We will sit at the table with the executives tomorrow,” they stated. Thursday and Friday were meetings, very productive, according to the few leaks to the media. On Saturday the Amptp and the union led by Fran Drescher held meetings again, this time online. And on Sunday there was no rest. That night SAG-AFTRA assured in a letter to its members that both parties would work on Monday, although separately. Until Tuesday the 31st, Halloween, where we worked until mid-afternoon. On the 1st they returned and Drescher published a video on his social networks talking about “strength, not anger, optimism, not negativity” and that she was “ready to get back to work.” On the 2nd and 3rd, the information indicated that the end was imminent. And this was announced on Saturday the 4th.
“Today we received an offer from Amptp which they called ‘The last, the best and the final’. “We are reviewing it and considering the response in the context of the critical issues we address in our proposals,” they announced in a statement from SAG that Saturday. Everything dragged on, especially due to the issue of artificial intelligence, which kept the parties sitting at the table throughout Monday. Finally on Wednesday afternoon, shortly before five (Pacific time, two in the morning on Thursday, Spanish peninsular time), the agreement was reached.
The specialized press assures that the interest of the great content creators was focused on saving what remains of the season, but above all next year, for which there are only a couple of months left. The awards season is about to begin, some of the most powerful premieres of the moment are starting and it seems essential that the actors are there to promote them. The Moon Killers, by Martin Scorsese, barely managed to raise 23 million dollars (21.7 million euros) in its first weekend at the box office in the US, despite being one of the big bets of the season. When it debuted at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood in mid-October, there was hardly any media or expectation, as it did not have stars like Leonardo DiCaprio or Robert De Niro. The next installment of Mission Impossiblescheduled for 2024, has already been postponed to 2025, as has the remake of Snow White.
The actors have a collective agreement that is renewed every three years. The signing of the 2020 one, in the middle of the pandemic, was a mere procedure, so in this 2023 one they intended to introduce profound changes, such as salary improvements and regulation regarding artificial intelligence. But the positions between the union that represents the more than 160,000 actors in the United States and the powerful studios became so far apart that they led to a strike that began on July 13. And it was not until last October 3 when both parties decided to sit down again to talk about the matter.
There were meetings, talks, approaches… until everything broke down 10 days later. According to SAG-AFTRA, the studies—grouped under the acronym Amptp—offered an economic proposal even lower than that at the beginning of the negotiation. “Our determination is unwavering,” they stated, while criticizing the studios for using “abusive tactics.” “We have sacrificed too much to capitulate to their evasions and greed,” said the president of the actors union, Fran Drescher.
The union presented a plan to increase the minimum salaries of actors that implied a payment of 800 million dollars annually (755 million euros) for the studios, at a rate of about 57 cents (or 54 euro cents) per subscriber. However, they did not accept it. Last week, George Clooney, accompanied by other actors such as Meryl Streep and Emma Stone, launched a proposal in which they would pay higher fees until they raised around $50 million annually to help their colleagues. Although Drescher appreciated it, he reminded them that this would not be legal, because contributions to salaries, health plans and pensions can only be made by employers.
After more than 100 days of strike, the public image of the actors union is beginning to be affected. Especially after small outbursts such as prohibiting actors from dressing up on Halloween as the fictional characters of the platforms and companies against which they are demonstrating. Actress and president of SAG-AFTRA between 2001 and 2005 Melissa Gilbert (little house on the prairie) He harshly criticized that decision. “Do you think that this kind of childish things will end the strike? We look like a joke,” she lamented. “Please tell me that you are going to remove this rule… and start negotiating! For the love of God, people are suffering a lot and this is the only thing you have to say… come on, guys.
The strike has left immense labor and economic losses in the film industry, in the State of California and throughout the country. The first actors’ strike since 1980—then lasted 95 days; This time it was the first time that actors and scriptwriters protested at the same time since 1960 – it has been tough from the first day, and it is estimated that it will leave losses of 4,000 million dollars, according to the most optimistic estimates, and up to 7,000.
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