ACTION!: Everything You Need To Know About the SAG AFTRA Strike
New York SAG-AFTRA members on strike outside the Warner Brothers office in Manhattan. Credit: Phil Roeder via Flickr
On July 14, 2023, the Screen Actors Guild - the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, also known as SAG-AFTRA, announced they would be going on strike due to ongoing labor issues with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). The Today Show reported that the union represents an estimated “160,000 people in the entertainment industry, including actors, recording artists, radio personalities, and other media professionals.”
Actors and other SAG-AFTRA members are on strike for better pay and working conditions. Regarding compensation, union members are asking for an 11% increase to their baseline pay and an 8% raise over the next two years. This raise will make up for the inflation, as explained in a document shared by SAG-AFTRA.
Another part of the strike concerns the usage of artificial intelligence. Union members are asking for more robust protection against their likeness being used to create AI. Many actors who play background roles are concerned with being replaced with digital copies of actors from other films. CBS News explained that for many background actors, a small part amidst a large cast could create a career break.
To many, the request for a larger salary may seem greedy - especially when seeing our favorite stars receiving millions to appear in films. However, for many actors, this is not their reality. Actor Gina Yashere, who played Kemi in the CBS sitcom, Bob Hearts Abishola, took to Instagram to explain the SAG-AFTRA strike in further detail. One of the main issues she claimed is healthcare. She said, “To qualify for healthcare…you have to earn over $26,000 as an actor.” She explains that this makes 87% of actors ineligible for primary healthcare.
The same goes for many writers; under the reins of AMPTP, writers must make $40,000 a year to qualify for healthcare benefits, excluding 92% of writers in the industry.
This has been a massive summer for the entertainment industry, with movies such as Barbie and Oppenheimer hitting theaters, so what will the future of entertainment entail? Many highly anticipated films such as “Deadpool 3, which was to star Ryan Reynolds and Hugh Jackman, and Gladiator 2, starring Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal, and Denzel Washington, have shut down due to the strike,” explained the LA Times.
For now, actors and writers are asked to refrain from attending any promotional events, such as Comic-Con and the London premiere of Oppenheimer.
SAG-AFTRA has also specified that actors on the picket line “can not act, sing, dance, perform stunts, pilot on-camera aircraft, puppeteer, or do performance capture and motion capture work in front of the camera.” Ultimately bringing the majority of the industry to a screeching halt, the LA Times explained.
However, the Screen Actors Guild has granted waivers to some independent films and television shows to continue filming, especially to those who do have any affiliations to major studios or streaming platforms.
Although it is unsure when the strike will end, the president of the Guild and actress, Fran Drescher, explained to the media that she is prepared for the strike to last another six months. However, Discovery CEO David Zaslav estimated an end to the strike would come in early September.
Negotiations have yet to occur between unions and the studios at the time of publication, with the exclusion of Warner Brothers.