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SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher and National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland laid out Friday how the actors’ 118-day strike ended and their thoughts on the deal with the AMPTP.
The duo, in a press conference at their Wilshire Blvd headquarters, detailed the stresses and “dealbreaker” moment during negotiations, highlighting how the studios’ about-face on AI and streaming revenue came about.
“We are extremely proud of what we fought for and won in this new contract, and I am personally extremely proud of our president, our negotiating committee and our members who stepped up to bring about this change,” said Crabtree-Ireland.
RELATED: Studios ‘delighted’ by SAG-AFTRA board vote approving strike agreement and ‘grateful’ for restarting industry
However, it was clear that not all members of the SAG-AFTRA national board were completely satisfied with the deal, as it passed with 86% support, lower than expected. It’s not clear how many people voted against it because SAG-AFTRA has a “weighted” voting system.
RELATED: Actors to vote on strike agreement after SAG-AFTRA board approves tentative agreement
A summary of the contracts won is expected shortly. The full contract details will be available no later than Monday morning before voting begins on Tuesday.
Drescher began the press conference an hour and a half late and said early on that she realized there was a “discrepancy” in streaming.
“I felt that there was no way anything about this contract was going to make a meaningful difference in the lives of our members who worked on the streaming platforms. The contract itself had to be changed,” she said. “We decided together that we needed to invest in another source of income. For 35 days we said like a broken record: “We have to reach into another pocket.” We have to get new money from somewhere. Every time we brought it up, the AMPTP said ‘no’.”
Crabtree-Ireland then said such a request “would lead to nothing”.
“I think they recognized that they were facing a new kind of leadership in me and Duncan, and we fended off their intimidation tactics. They had to acknowledge that we demanded respect. So we kept coming back to the idea of revenue sharing. OK, you don’t like the 2%, what about 1%? Okay, don’t you think you can do this? It’s a bridge too far. What about the 57 cent stamp concept where we get that per subscriber per year? No,” added Drescher.
Drescher said that it was up to the studios to “meet the moment,” otherwise “it wouldn’t end well.”
“They’ve been working internally to develop some kind of modality that works for all the different AMPTP members who are currently either fully entrenched in streaming or are engaged in it. But somehow they came up with a model that they offered to the WGA and they accepted it. We knew that we wouldn’t achieve what we wanted to achieve. But my Buddhist wisdom teaches me, “The tallest bamboo trees can bend the furthest.” So I had to realize that we had to make this work. I’m a girl from Flushing, so to me money is money, it’s just as green, wherever it comes from, just give it away.”
It was at this point that Crabtree-Ireland developed the concept of the streaming bonus fund, which would allow the union to use the studio mechanism to distribute the money to the actors.
That fund is split 75/25, so 75% of the money goes to actors in shows that meet the set criteria, which she described as a “thimble for shows.” “They deserve the bonus,” she said, saying in an earlier world these shows would have gone to syndication.
“I felt like, ‘Is this a win or a loss?’ but we get the money. We have opened a new source of income. That’s what we told them at the beginning: the mechanism and the quantity didn’t matter. What mattered was that we got into another pocket, and we did. I had to be flexible again and focus and not let the perfect be the enemy of the good,” she added.
The Nanny star added that the criteria for bonuses may shift from 20% of viewers to 10% of viewers next time in three years.
“I started thinking about it and realized that this is an ongoing, living thing, a contract, and we’re not at the end yet. We’re just starting to get it on the page, understand the language, get in the bag and let’s go, baby,” she added.
Drescher joked that the “Fran Plan” is all about time and patience.
She admitted there were many stressful moments during the process and highlighted the studios’ intimidation tactics, particularly pointing to her much-discussed plush toy.
“The weight of it all was extremely stressful. A lot of times I had to stay home on Zoom and put on my robe because it was just so stressful and going into the room with the AMPTP was a lot. So when I could be home with my dog, it was helpful. ” she added.
Finally, Drescher thanked the AMPTP for “recognizing the gravity of this historic and groundbreaking negotiation and recognizing the moment.”
Deadline caught up with both of them after the press conference.