Getty
The actors have officially given the studios their seal of approval for their latest deal.
SAG-AFTRA, which opened the ratification vote on November 14, announced that 78.33% of ballots were in favor of the November 8 tentative agreement with the AMPTP. This number is much higher than many expected given the uproar on social media, particularly around AI
SAG-AFTRA members’ vote on the new contract with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers on Tuesday officially ends the labor contract that saw the guild go on strike for 118 days – even though many productions have already returned to work as permitted SAG- AFTRA last month.
The 160,000-member guild’s rules required a majority of 50% + 1 vote to ratify the new deal. In 2020, at the height of the pandemic, the last contract was approved by 74% of voting members. In 2017, 76% of voting members said “yes” to a new three-year contract.
The guild also noted that 38.15% of members voted this time. In 2020, 27.2% of members voted and in 2017 it was 15.3%. The agreement expires on June 30, 2026.
Tuesday’s decision was widely expected, even though that contract has been far more contentious among members than the WGA’s and SAG-AFTRA leadership has had difficulty getting some members on board. Similar to the author contract, the SAG-AFTRA deal breaks new ground with several provisions, including the guardrails around the use of artificial intelligence and the new streaming performance bonus. While the WGA’s negotiating committee received overwhelming praise for the breakthrough on this contract, not all members of the actors’ union welcomed this new contract with such open arms.
SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher said, “I am proud of our SAG-AFTRA membership. They struck for 118 days to give the Television and Theater Bargaining Committee the leverage it needed to secure more than $1 billion in profits, along with the union’s first protections on AI technology. Now they have secured the profits by ratifying the contract. SAG-AFTRA members have continued to be incredibly committed throughout this process and I know they will continue their advocacy throughout our next bargaining cycle. This is a golden age for SAG-AFTRA, and our union has never been more powerful.”
Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, SAG-AFTRA national managing director and chief negotiator, said: “SAG-AFTRA members have called for a fundamental change in the way this industry treats them: fair compensation for their work, protection against misuse of AI technology, stronger benefit plans,” and treating all members equally and with respect, among other things. This new contract delivers on these goals and makes significant progress in moving the industry in the right direction. By ratifying this treaty, members have made it clear that they want to use their unity to lay the foundation for a better industry and improve the lives of those working in their profession. In any democratic institution there will sometimes be disagreements. But no one should confuse the vigorous debate and democracy within SAG-AFTRA with a lack of unity in our purpose or mission: to protect and advance the cause of SAG-AFTRA members now and forever.”
The road to a deal hasn’t been easy for SAG-AFTRA, which joined the writers on the picket line in July after talks with the studios fell through. The standoff between the AMPTP and the guilds held Hollywood through most of the summer before the WGA negotiated a deal toward the end of September. Both parties seemed to be hoping that the goodwill from this deal would also lead to a quick end to the actors’ strike.
It took about 80 days for talks between the Actors’ Guild and the studios to officially resume, but negotiations quickly collapsed again on October 11 when the AMPTP left negotiations early after the guild proposed an alternative to its controversial revenue-sharing proposal suggested and instead asked for a subscriber fee of 57¢. A few hours later, the studios informed the guild leadership that talks were “suspended.”
After an appreciated but DOA offer from George Clooney and other A-listers to intervene in resuming talks and a call from Disney CEO Bob Iger to national executive director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP announced on the 100th On the day of the strike, it was announced that they would return to the table again on October 24th. The parties once again got off to a rocky start, but moved ever closer to an agreement, with AI emerging as the final sticking point that would not be resolved until the eleventh hour.
After a summary of the MBA was published on November 12, there was growing dissent among members who felt the treaty did not go far enough with its AI provisions. These dissenters included Justine Bateman and National Board member Matthew Modine.
In fact, the disagreement became apparent early in the approval process, when the guild’s national board met on November 10. That meeting lasted much longer than expected and ultimately nine board members, including Modine, voted against the deal. This resulted in the diverse board of 86% of members forwarding the deal in full to members for ratification. Modine has since made it clear that as a member he would vote against the deal again.
Crabtree-Ireland and President Fran Drescher have worked hard to counter the negativity surrounding the contract by holding several in-person and virtual information sessions where members were encouraged to ask clarifying questions of their leadership before the voting deadline. On November 24, the guild finally released a full version of the 128-page tentative contract for members to read.
Leadership opinion largely remained that greater gains would be made with the next contract, and any weaknesses in the 2023 MBA were not significant enough to risk non-compliance with the 2020 contract while leadership came to the negotiating table with the Studios returned.