By Sophia Gerl
Hollywood Actors will return to work in TV shows and movies.
Since July 14th, actors have gone on the streets to demonstrate for almost 4 months.
“SAG-AFTRA Strike.’ On November 9th, it finally ended.
But what is it all about, and why did it end?
“SAG- AFTRA” is a union that stands for “The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists.”
It has around 160,000 members who work in sections like acting, announcing, broadcasting, etc.
The strike began not just because their wages didn’t change during inflation, but also because their pay conditions were changed.
When their shows get “reused” or streamed on streaming platforms like Netflix, Hulu, and Max, they don’t get their normal wages anymore. They can no longer rely on the royalty payments that they get for show reruns.
And as a result of the rise of the use of streaming platforms, actors got lower wages for the same work and effort they put into a project.
Another big point of their dissatisfaction was the use of AI in “AI-created content”.
As a consequence, they decided to set a deadline for July 12.
If no deal was reached until then, they would start a strike.
This was also implemented on July 14, after the SAG-AFTRA board voted for a strike on July 13. More than 400 prominent actors participated.
All of that started with an open letter to SAG-AFTRA in which they said:
“We feel that our wages, our craft, our creative freedom, and the power of our union have all been undermined in the last decade. We need to reverse those trajectories.”(*)
The first response from AMPTP said that they would be disappointed by their members because of the breakdown of negotiations. They also said that the strike was the union’s choice, not theirs.
Further, they said that the strike would deepen the financial hardship for thousands of people and argued that they would still recover from the consequences of the COVID pandemic.
The strike interrupted movie production for almost 4 months.
After 118 days, on November 9th, the Hollywood Actors’ Strike finally ended, and all picked locations were closed after the SAG-AFTRA’s national board committee agreed on an agreement by a majority of 86%.
The announcement by SAG-AFTRA and AMPTP that they had reached a deal was made on November 8.
The deal allows every SAG-AFTRA member to build a sustainable career, which will give thousands of performers a future they will benefit from. The agreements they made haven’t been released yet, but we already know that the deal will allow the studios to resume production of TV shows and movies, which has been largely discontinued over the past six months.
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