U.K. Actors Union Equity Readies Guidance for SAG-AFTRA Strike (EXCLUSIVE)
13.07.2023 - 11:47
/ variety.com
Manori Ravindran Executive Editor of International U.K. actors union Equity is preparing advice for its members as SAG-AFTRA gets ready to take strike action on Thursday. Variety understands that the union, which has 50,000 members, has agreed a basic position with its U.S. counterpart. These rules will apply to U.K. productions, and the two groups are in the process of hammering out the finer details. Equity is asking members to check its website for the specific advice around 8 p.m. U.K. time on Thursday, which coincides with a SAG-AFTRA press conference in Los Angeles at noon Pacific time that will officially announce the actors strike.
Sources indicate that the U.K.’s strict union laws prevent an extensive show of solidarity from Equity, which can’t legally call a strike to support SAG-AFTRA due to restrictive British legislation.
The London-headquartered org is the 12th largest trade union in the U.K., and represents actors, singers, dancers, designers, directors, stage managers and voice artists, among others. As the profile of British talent has grown in Hollywood over the last decade, so too has Equity’s power. The U.K. actors union has so far stayed quiet on advising members. This is largely because working out the rules of play during a strike is an extensive process, mired in the legalities of a specific jurisdiction. Equity general secretary Paul W. Fleming held meetings in Los Angeles with SAG-AFTRA last month to discuss the unions’ shared agenda, and the executive told Variety in late June that Equity wouldn’t “undermine” its American counterpart in any way. SAG-AFTRA’s contract expired on June 30, but the union extended negotiations with Hollywood’s collective bargaining agent, the Alliance of Motion
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