SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher Urges Members to Authorize Strike: ‘Acting Careers Are at Stake’

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.

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.

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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.

By Lisa RichwineLOS ANGELES (Reuters) -Hollywood's actors union voted to authorize a strike if contract talks break down, turning up the heat on major film and television studios already grappling with a monthlong work stoppage by writers. After voting closed on Monday, SAG-AFTRA said 97.

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.

SAG-AFTRA members have voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike if upcoming contract talks fail to produce a satisfactory agreement by June 30. The vote revealed Monday was 97.91% in favor, with nearly half of eligible members — 47.69% — casting ballots. According to the union, nearly 65% of eligible members voted.

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.

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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.

Elizabeth Taylor Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ spoke out about the pending SAG-AFTRA strike authorization during the New York premiere of her new film “You Hurt My Feelings.” When the Emmy winner was asked if she will join the picket lines if the union calls for a stike, she told Variety on the red carpet, “You bet your fucking ass.” “I voted yes for the strike authorization,” Julia Louis-Dreyfus further explained before entering the screening at the DGA theater in Manhattan. “By the way, that doesn’t mean we’re striking. It just gives the board the ability to strike if they need to and I’m in favor of that. The issues that the Screen Actors Guild is facing are very similar to what the Writers Guild is facing; and even the DGA for that matter to certain extent…it’s time for us to stand up and get what we so rightfully deserve, which is a living wage, and particularly for the middle class in the Screen Actors Guild not to be squeezed out of the system all together.”

Saying that “acting careers are at stake,” SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher has sent an audio message to the guild’s members urging them to vote “Yes” for strike authorization.

SAG-AFTRA and Cameo for Business (C4B), the celebrity digital marketplace that connects talent with fans and brands, have reached what the guild is calling a “groundbreaking” agreement that allows its members to work under a SAG-AFTRA contract and count their C4B earnings toward their pension and health benefits.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer SAG-AFTRA has struck a deal with celebrity video platform Cameo to cover the brand deals that members make through Cameo for Business (C4B) under a guild contract. The new pact, “C4B x SAG-AFTRA Agreement,” will allow SAG-AFTRA members to count C4B earnings toward health and pension benefits, just as those earnings become a growing concern for out of work actors while the Writers Guild of America’s strike against Hollywood studios and their organization, Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), rages on. SAG-AFTRA has been a big supporter of WGA on the picket line over the first three weeks of the strike, with SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher being very vocal ahead of the the actors guild entering its own contract negotiations with the AMPTP on June 7.

a statement announcing the vote.While unanimity among SAG-AFTRA’s board is no guarantee that rank and file membership will agree to a strike, the issues listed in the guild’s statement very closely mirror those raised by the Writers Guild of America, which is in the third week of a strike that is increasingly interrupting Hollywood business.Writers have been on strike since May 2, and in part are seeking to reverse recent trends in the industry that have come to define the streaming era — for instance, they note sky-high salaries executives earn while creatives, especially writers, are struggling to support themselves. WGA is in particular calling out industry practices that they say have turned Hollywood into a “gig economy,” such as so-called “mini rooms” where writers with a television pitch must form a writer room on their own dime and create an entire season’s worth of scripts before a show is even greenlit.

SAG-AFTRA’s national board voted unanimously today to recommend that the union’s members authorize a strike in advance of its upcoming negotiations for a new film and TV contract.

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer SAG-AFTRA announced Wednesday that it will hold a strike authorization vote as it seeks to get its “ducks in a row” ahead of June 7 negotiations with the major studios. The vote does not mean that the performers’ union will necessarily join the Writers Guild of America on the picket lines after its contract expires on June 30. In a press release, the union said its negotiating committee decided that a strike authorization would provide “maximum bargaining leverage” for the talks. “We must get all our ducks in a row should the need present itself,” SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher said in the release. “The prospect of a strike is not a first option, but a last resort. As my dad always says, ‘Better to have and not need than to need and not have!’”