Eighty days of strike achieved a lot, but not exactly for negotiations. Although SAG-AFTRA, the actors’ union, and its thousands of members decided to quit for good on July 13, it was only today that they met with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (Amptp, its acronym in English), with whom they when negotiating their collective agreement, which they renew every three years. Their points of view were so far apart during this time that it took two and a half months before they finally sat down and talked to each other.
This Monday, October 2, representatives of both parties met to discuss the issues that matter most to actors: the increase in the minimum wage, the role that artificial intelligence will play in the careers of artists in the coming years, the requirements of the castings Applicants transfer to the production companies (ever faster and more complex) and the so-called residuals, the income that the series leave behind when they are broadcast on television, sometimes until recently very lucrative checks for the actors (also for those of the actors and themselves). for those who appeared in a simple scene) and which now no longer exist with the advent of streaming platforms. The meeting does not mean that there is an agreement, but it does at least mean that there is some rapprochement that allows them to maintain a cordial conversation and a basic first contact.
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Only after eight o’clock in the evening in Los Angeles (five o’clock in the morning on Tuesday in mainland Spain) did the Union make a statement through its social networks. “We have concluded our first day of negotiations with the Amptp and will resume talks on Wednesday, October 4,” they said, encouraging members to continue joining the picket lines on Tuesday. “Another day. One day stronger. “As long as we need,” the statement concluded. No details of the negotiations have been leaked, and both parties decided months ago not to release specific information to the media until they agreed to it have agreed on what they will stick to.
It was late last week when SAG-AFTRA, the union chaired by Fran Drescher that brings together more than 160,000 interpreters, announced through statements and on its social networks that talks were resuming and that this was finally the day case let go. sitting at the table with the amptp; That is, the bosses of the company and where Paramount, Disney, Universal, Netflix, Amazon, Sony, Warner and Apple are grouped. The meeting looked good to resolve a situation that, according to calculations by the State of California, is already causing losses of more than 6,000 million dollars.
The SAG met to negotiate just three days after the first agreement between the employers and the screenwriters and also went on strike, but long before that: their strike started on May 2nd and lasted almost 150 days. The WGA, the union that unites around 11,500 writers, and the Amptp met on Wednesday, September 20th, and from that moment they tried to achieve reconciliation before Sunday evening, the start of the Yom Kippur celebrations, the Day of Atonement for the Hebrews to enter into an agreement community. Even California Governor Gavin Newsom joined the meetings as a mediator to reach an agreement. Finally, on Sunday September 24th, a last-minute agreement was reached that was beneficial for all parties, “extraordinary” in their own words. It will be ratified this week: it is expected that union members will vote on it broadly and that it will take until May 2026. Less than 72 hours after the expected news, the actors announced that they would also take the first steps towards the long-awaited finale. But Fran Drescher, the president of SAG, made it clear back then. “We’re happy with the agreement with the writers, but one size doesn’t fit all,” he told CNN.
The hat full of pins and badges of an actor protesting a picket line in Manhattan, New York on September 28, 2023. MIKE SEGAR (Portal)
Tensions between the two parties have been evident since the strike was declared in mid-July; so much so that this first contact lasted more than 80 days. The key to the negotiations, beyond the tone of war declared between the parties (represented in the SAG by the always combative and media-loving Fran Drescher, who gradually cedes the spotlight to more actors seen on the picket lines Los Angeles, New York and other cities in the United States) were salaries and artificial intelligence. If the one-two punch was powerful, now that the actors have been left alone, they must negotiate on their own to achieve a condition at least as good as that of their co-writers. But that shouldn’t lead to haste, say many critics and experts on the situation, because 160,000 families are dependent on the conclusion of the collective agreement. “It’s not the actors’ responsibility to bring Hollywood back to life. They are not the ones who created the problems that led to two hugely disruptive attacks, nor are the scriptwriters. “The studios have created a system where active actors no longer earn enough to make a living, and it is up to the studios to change that,” the Los Angeles Times said in an opinion column this Monday. Hundreds of workers were in serious economic danger; Some of Hollywood’s highest-paid actors have donated millions of dollars to a collective fund to help them navigate these months of uncertainty and lack of liquidity.
The first actors’ strike since 1980 – and the first joint strike by actors and writers since 1960 – was tough from day one. On the same day, July 13, the head of negotiations, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, stated in an interview with EL PAÍS that they were ready to negotiate from the first minute, but the studios did not want this. “We believe there is only one way to reach an agreement, and that is to talk and negotiate. And if they don’t want to talk to us and negotiate with us, we will be ready to do so whenever they are ready.” It took almost three months to get to this moment. And the repeat only takes 48 hours.
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