In a live-streamed press conference today, SAG-AFTRA confirmed what we all suspected would happen: the actors are walking out. After negotiations between the actor’s guild and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers failed to produce an acceptable successor contract, SAG-AFTRA allowed its contract to expire Wednesday at midnight.
And now, the actors are joining the writers on the picket lines as they withhold work until they get a fair and equitable contract. With a strong mandate from the first strike authorization vote and an unanimous vote from the negotiating committee, it seemed almost certain that the National Board of the Guild would authorize the labor action.
“Union members should withhold their labor until a contract has been achieved,” said National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland in a livestreamed media conference. SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher, said that it was “with great sadness that we came to this crossroads… we are the victims here. I am shocked by the way that people we have been in business with are treating us.”
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Drescher was emotional as she delivered the news to both the general public and members of the SAG-AFTRA. “It was insulting,” she said, describing how they were treated in the negotiation room. “We came together…with the largest strike authorization vote in our unions history.”
“The jig is up AMPTP! We stand tall. You have to wake up and smell the coffee. We are labor, and we stand tall, and we demand respect, and to be honored for our contribution. You share the wealth,” she said, emotional at the end of her speech, “because you cannot exist without us.”
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The floor opened for questions, including the AMPTP response to the SAG-AFTRA strike announcement. The last time that the Screen Actors Guild (prior to its merger with the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) went on strike alongside the Writers Guild of America was back in 1960, when Ronald Reagan was SAG president. This united front alongside not just the striking WGA, but also the Teamsters, IATSE, and Hollywood Craft Unions, show that solidarity is going to be key to winning a fair contract for all workers.
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