Fran Drescher On The Studios Refusing To Negotiate And The SAG-AFTRA Strike Hitting 100 Days – Guest Column
21.10.2023 - 19:59
/ deadline.com
Editor’s note: On the 100th day of SAG-AFTRA’s strike, the 160,000-strong guild and the studios are once again not talking, and no new negotiations are planned. Writers are back at work, but with no actors deal, Hollywood production remains shut down. SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher asserts that it doesn’t have to be like this, that the economic suffering has to be solved. But first, she writes, the studios have to return to the bargaining table and stop playing games with the industry and people’s livelihoods.
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The members of SAG-AFTRA are in a David-and-Goliath, righteous fight for the future of our profession and our industry.
The 10-year grace period we have given the AMPTP companies to build their streaming platforms at the expense of my members’ fair compensation has come to a screeching halt.
We began negotiations in June with every expectation that we could reach a fair deal. We even granted a 12-day extension of negotiations in an effort to explore every possibility of making a deal, to no avail. As a strike became an absolute necessity, the companies refused to continue negotiations and walked away in mid-July.
When negotiations resumed on October 2, the CEOs afforded us exactly two full-day and three half-day bargaining sessions to resolve a contract that is fraught with inequities in streaming video on demand (SVOD), AI, and other critical concerns like minimum compensation increases that keep up with inflation and dated caps on pension and health contributions, to name just a few key concerns. We presented a comprehensive package and, again, on October 11, they walked away.
As we reach the 100th day of this strike, we are more committed than ever to achieving a seminal contract that is fair and just,