Hollywood’s long strike season is over and the city can finally get back to work without the need for further labor disputes.
The actors went on strike for 118 days, but after the ratification of the agreement between SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP with a very whopping 78.33% of the vote, thespel, writers, directors and crew – not to mention all associated workers – can leave with some optimism into 2024.
Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, national executive director of SAG-AFTRA and chief negotiator who worked for many months alongside President Fran Drescher and the guild’s negotiating committee to finalize this deal, spoke to Deadline an hour after Tuesday’s ratification vote. He was obviously happy with both the result and the turnout, which was higher than even he had expected.
The deal, valued at around $1 billion over three years, includes the union’s first protections on AI technology, albeit controversial ones, as well as gains on residuals, notably the introduction of streaming -Bonus, a pension and health care.
Crabtree-Ireland acknowledged that some people would not be happy with the deal, particularly in the area of AI, but said SAG-AFTRA essentially got what it asked for early in the process. He called it a “very good start to introducing a sophisticated and enforceable protection package for our members”.
He also addressed health issues that came into focus today after Animal Kingdom star Ellen Barkin tweeted that they were the case has “dumped” her SAG-AFTRA health plan.. Crabtree-Ireland said additional funding would give healthcare trustees “financial flexibility” in the future.
Finally, he also said that he was “already starting to think about the negotiations in 2026.” They’ll come over sooner than we think.
DEADLINE: Congratulations on ratification; How do you feel?
DUNCAN CRABTREE-IRELAND: I am extremely satisfied with the results and am also very pleased that the voter turnout was really strong. This gives great credibility to the result because it shows the great commitment of all our members to really evaluate this agreement and ultimately make their decision on it, which obviously meant a very large majority of yes votes. I’m really happy about it.
DEADLINE: 78.33% is a much higher number than many people expected. In recent days there seemed to be a lot of people worried about the number.
CRABTREE-IRELAND: I’m very, very happy about it. I think the only time you would expect numbers to be much higher is if there is essentially an uncontested treaty referendum involving everyone [thinks] “Yeah, that’s great.” That obviously wasn’t the case in this case. There was a significant group of people who spoke particularly on the topic of AI and expressed concerns about whether the terms of the contract were appropriate or not, and I think we had a really intense debate and discussion with members about that. That’s great. Obviously, the ultimate result of this discussion was a very large majority who believed that this treaty was worthy of ratification. I think this puts us in a good position to continue to build on the contract wins we have achieved
DEADLINE: Was the amount higher than expected?
CRABTREE-IRELAND: It may have been higher than I expected. But I was hoping for a number at this stadium because I really felt like I did a lot of informational meetings, not just the ones that were videotaped, but at various locations around the country – and I just saw a lot of them Member engagement was enormous, so I instinctively sensed that there was broader support for this agreement than people might have guessed from just watching the recorded information meetings or looking at social media. I think sometimes it’s easy for us to get into a situation where everyone we hear about on social media feels like they are the world, when in fact there is a whole world out there. That’s why I was hoping for a result in this stadium and of course I’m happy with the results.
DEADLINE: The voter turnout was also higher than in the last deals – how did you feel about that?
CRABTREE IRELAND: If you break it down into the actual numbers, that’s more than 55,000 members who voted in this vote. That is a lot. I think that’s definitely enough to feel like the result is a very representative sample of our members as a whole. I know that there will be members who will be disappointed with the outcome and wish that the treaty had not been ratified. But we are here to represent everyone. So this is part of the democratic process, it’s completely fine. From here we move forward, the treaty is ratified, it actually comes into force and we prepare for the preparations we need to make for a next round of negotiations in two and a half years, which still seems a long way off, but will be here be [soon].
DEADLINE: Have you ever wondered why the other 62% don’t vote?
CRABTREE-IRELAND: That’s a good question. When we had the vote to authorize the strike, which was only 40%, that was unprecedented for us. People have busy lives. I think the fact is that there are people who, for whatever reason, haven’t had a chance to vote because the industry is getting back to work. There are probably some people who are just not that active, much like in politics, in general, or when election opportunities arise, but we have a long history of voter turnout results, and this is definitely at the highest end. This gives me the impression that there is a high level of commitment from members. If we look at the strike itself, there were virtually no violations of the strike orders and there was a large turnout on the picket lines. I don’t think anyone, looking at the negotiations as a whole, could not come to the conclusion that SAG-AFTRA members are, on the whole, very committed to their union, that they are informed about the issues and that is why we have achieved this great success achieve.
While there are members who are disappointed about the AI provisions or whatever when you look at this contract, overall it’s really exceptional. To our knowledge, this is the first industry contract to exceed $1 billion in contract profits over a contract term. This is the first time anyone has ever had the detailed AI regulations that we have set out in this agreement. It is the first time ever that the self-gluing and casting process has been regulated with very specific restrictions. The Streaming Bonus Fund is the first time a fund of this type has been created in this part of the industry. There are so many things in this deal that are groundbreaking, and for them all to happen at once, in one contract period, is extraordinary. I think that has been overshadowed by the fear of AI. But these are fundamental problems that members will feel.
DEADLINE: What do you say to members who still have concerns about AI and say there are no meaningful protections?
CRABTREE-IRELAND: I realize that there are people who just want AI banned – they don’t want it to exist, they wish it would never be invented. But that’s not realistic. We can’t achieve that. If you look at what we actually set out at the beginning of this negotiation, our goal is to achieve informed consent and fair compensation. I must have said it a thousand times on picket lines and everywhere else. And by the way, when I said no one said no the whole time, that’s not right, everyone said, “Yes, we should get that.” We achieved these things. Informed consent applies to this contract. There is fair compensation. It has a structure built on generative AI. I understand and respect the point of view of people who feel that there is a real threat that this treaty cannot address. I believe that over the life of this agreement, over the next two and a half years, the protections that we have in this agreement will be sufficient to address these concerns. I also note that this is not the only way we are trying to approach AI. It’s a very important part of it. But just last week, I was a participant in a Senate forum on AI organized by Majority Leader [Chuck] Schumer, a bipartisan group of senators that has hosted a number of these forums, and I were there last week and talked about AI, the creative industries, and copyright law. The fact is that you will need legislative and policy measures to complement collective bargaining and member education. There are several pieces to the puzzle that go into providing this protection. Not everything rests on the shoulders of this one contract. When people have a chance to think about it more, given the entry into force of this treaty next month, I think they will realize that we have an opportunity to further expand these protections and that this is a very good start to creating a sophisticated and enforceable protection package for our members.
DEADLINE: Do you think the AI issue has clouded the positive economic aspects of the deal? Earlier today, Ellen Barkin tweeted that she was dropped from her health insurance, and that seems to be the type of issue members worry about on a daily basis?
CRABTREE-IRELAND: First of all, we would like to note that the issues surrounding artists who are Medicare-eligible and receiving a pension and whose balances are not counted toward the entitlement credit are not directly addressed in this contract, as this is a decision that will ultimately be made made by the health plan trustees and the decision in question was made in 2020 as part of an effort to address funding shortfalls in the health plan. However, in this contract we would have tried to help by making it a priority to negotiate significant increases in health contributions. There will be more than $300 million in additional funding for our benefit plan during this term, a portion of which will be directed toward the health plan. That will potentially provide trustees with the kind of financial flexibility that allows them to address things like eligibility issues triggered by residual payments for Medicare-eligible providers receiving their pension.
It’s something we all care about and care deeply about, and this negotiation has helped us have the funding in the health plan so we can try to find a way to address this issue.
DEADLINE: When do you start thinking about the contract until 2026?
CRABTREE-IRELAND: I think we’re already starting to think about it. Of course, we want to see the implementation of this agreement first, because from the implementation of this agreement we will learn a lot about what the industry will do in the near future. I know that under this agreement we have the special right to meet with the companies every six months to find out what they are doing in the area of AI, particularly in the area of generative AI, and that will be a source of information that helps us to strategically develop our proposals in this area for the next round of negotiations. But please also note that we still need to negotiate a contract with the video game companies. We are in the middle of these negotiations. We are on the verge of a possible strike in this area, and AI is one of the issues – one of the key issues – in these negotiations. This is a topic that will be relevant in all of our contract negotiations, not just TV/cinema, and so it is not a topic that I will stop thinking about or talking about in the near future.