SAG-AFTRA Members Overwhelmingly Approve Strike Authorization

interview this past spring, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland told TheWrap that SAG-AFTRA’s leaders believe it could benefit actors if properly regulated so that performances and likenesses can’t be used without proper compensation and consent.If talks aren’t successful, SAG-AFTRA could end up joining WGA in a strike; members voted to authorize a strike ahead of contract talks earlier this month by an overwhelming 97%. If that happens, studios will face a strike by two separate guilds at once for the first time since 1960, when a double strike held by writers and actors led to the establishment of residuals for TV reruns.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer With less than a week to go before their contract expires, the leaders of SAG-AFTRA are striking an optimistic note about the progress of negotiations. In a video sent to members on Saturday, union president Fran Drescher and chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland say they hope to be able to achieve a deal with the studios. If they do, that would avert a “double strike,” in which performers would join the Writers Guild of America on picket lines outside the major studios. “I just want to assure you that we are having an extremely productive negotiations that are laser-focused on all of the crucial issues you told us are most important to you,” Drescher said. “We’re standing strong and we’re going to achieve a seminal deal.”

SAG-AFTRA leaders told their members today that the guild’s ongoing contract negotiations have been “extremely productive” and that they “remain optimistic” that a fair deal can be reached with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers.

The longest day of the year was this week, and SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers sure could use the extra hours to keep negotiating as the June 30 deadline to reach a deal before the current contract expires is only a week away.

EXCLUSIVE: Independent films that found it impossible to get bonded or financed this spring and summer with a potential SAG-AFTRA strike looming — as well as new projects that were looking to start after June 30 — now have a shot at moving ahead as the union proceeds with interim agreements.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer SAG-AFTRA’s master contract with Hollywood’s largest employers is due to expire in two weeks, and negotiators who have been in bargaining talks since June 7 have a lot of proposals to work through before that deadline. The time crunch has raised the possibility that the union’s talks with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers could go past the June 30 deadline, according to multiple sources who asked not to be identified. The SAG-AFTRA board has the power to call a strike starting on July 1 if no agreement is reached. That would immediately shut down all film and TV production that has not already been halted by the writers strike.

The moment the WGA strike started at 12:01 a.m. on May 2, all late-night shows went dark. Many presume that the same is bound to happen with daytime dramas if SAG-AFTRA goes on strike July 1, as those series, similarly, are in continuous, year-round production.

Billy Ray and Todd Garner are back for Week 6 of the Writers Guild standoff on Deadline’s Strike Talk podcast. Click below to listen.

The Television Critics Association has officially cancelled its upcoming summer press tour as the WGA, DGA and SAG-AFTRA are at different points of negotiating new contracts with the AMPTP.

IATSE’s general executive board has unanimously approved $2 million to be distributed to the union’s members who are in need of financial assistance due to the Writers Guild strike, which is in its 39th day.

SAG-AFTRA and the studios have begun negotiations for a new film and TV contract. The talks, which got underway Wednesday morning at the Sherman Oaks offices of the studios’ reps the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, come two days after the guild’s members voted 97.9% in favor of authorizing a strike if an acceptable deal isn’t reached by the end of the month.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer The membership of SAG-AFTRA has voted overwhelmingly to approve a strike authorization, maximizing the guild’s leverage ahead of negotiations that begin on Wednesday. The guild announced Monday night that 97.91% of the voting members supported the authorization. Turnout was 47.69%. The vote comes as the Writers Guild of America strike enters its sixth week. Many SAG-AFTRA members have already joined WGA members walking the picket lines. The leaders of both guilds have expressed solidarity with each other several times this year. The writers strike has caused a sharp downturn in production, especially in television. If SAG-AFTRA goes on strike, any remaining film and TV production would halt immediately. The union represents 160,000 performers.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer With a tentative Directors Guild of America deal in hand and the Writers Guild of America on strike, SAG-AFTRA has been thrust into a bigger role than the performer’s union has played in years in the industry’s triennial labor contract negotiations. SAG-AFTRA gets its turn at the bargaining table this week, with an agenda that seeks to address the many ways that technology is changing the profession of acting. Two of the union’s top concerns — streaming residuals and artificial intelligence — are also key issues for the WGA and DGA. The performers’ guild is also uniquely focused on putting limits on “self-taped” auditions, which have become ubiquitous since the beginning of the pandemic.

SAG-AFTRA, which begins negotiations for a new contract on Wednesday, said today that its bargaining strategy remains unchanged in the wake of the tentative deal made last night by the Directors Guild and the studios.

Apple reported almost $400 billion in revenue,” tweeted WGA captain Olga Lexell. “The cost of settling is reasonable, so what is Apple waiting for?”Members also shared stories of how Apple TV+ has frequently employed the use of minirooms, which require showrunners to hire staff for a writers room to write more scripts for a series before it is even greenlit.

ATX TV Festival had to change up many elements of their lineup. Specifically, they added a panel specifically about the strike, which began in May. On Saturday, Beau Willimon, the president of the Writers Guild of America, East, moderated a conversation between WGA West’s Zoanne Clack and Julie Plec and WGA East’s Greg Iwinski, who is on the negotiating committee. “We did not focus group, we did not go in and ask a management company what we should be asking for,” Iwinski, who has written on “Last Week Tonight With John Oliver” and “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” said at the top, explaining that they asked the 11,000 members what they were asking for and received 7,000 surveys back. “We brought these arguments to the studios and presented our solutions. And I had gone into the expectation that it would be a very difficult negotiation, and that we would be in a situation where we would be presented with a deal that was not great, but hard to say no to. And that is not what happened. We did six weeks of negotiations and at the end of it, we were still incredibly far apart.”

In a defiant clarion call for continued solidarity and endurance as the Writers Guild’s strike enters its second month, WGA negotiating committee co-chair Chris Keyser says in a new video that the guild’s fight for a fair contract is not one that’s being fought for writers alone, but for the entire labor movement.

Voting yes is NOT a vote to strike. It gives the board the POWER to strike if the AMPTP doesn’t agree to the essential contract improvements our members need.We’re a union, and a union stands together! pic.twitter.com/aSdTvb23WNThe guild is set to begin talks with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers on June 7.

A group of SAG-AFTRA members, including Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Jean Smart and Bob Balaban, has released a video urging their fellow performers to approve the strike authorization that’s currently out for a vote of the guild’s eligible members.

As the Writers Guild of America strike continues with no end in sight, rumours are swirling that the Directors Guild of America and SAG-ACTRA will be following suit when those unions’ contracts come up within the next few weeks.