The union representing more than 160,000 Hollywood film, radio and television actors and presenters has decided to go on strike if it does not reach a new agreement with the studios by June 30.
The decision was ratified on Monday night by 98% of some 65,000 votes and negotiations are expected to begin on Wednesday between the SAG-AFTRA union and the Alliance of Film and Television Producers (AMPTP), which represents the studios of Netflix, Amazon, Apple, Disney, Warner Bros. Discovery, NBC Universal, Paramount and Sony.
The actors’ demands are similar to those of the screenwriters, who entered the sixth week of the strike after the Writers Guild of America (WGA) union failed to reach a compensation agreement with film and television producers. .
The actors, many of whom have shown their support for the scriptwriters in their struggle with the big studios, also demand an improvement in working and salary conditions, which they consider out of step with inflation and the growing role of streaming platforms.
In addition, the actors expressed concern about the use of images generated by artificial intelligence and the management of voice and image rights.
The last time Hollywood actors went on strike was in the year 2000.
As for the scriptwriters, the last strike carried out by the union was in 2007 and lasted more than a month, which meant a loss of 2,100 million dollars (1,910 million euros) for the North American audiovisual industry and the dismissal of 37,000 professionals. .
The WGA demands some 600 million dollars (546.2 million euros) in salary increases and other benefits for scriptwriters, such as the compensation that a team member receives each time the product is reissued on television and that, according to the organization, has been reduced by streaming platforms.
The strike was called after the failure of the negotiations between the union that represents 11,500 scriptwriters and the AMPTP.
The WGA calls for increases of 5% and 6%, more screenwriters for each production, a minimum of 10 weeks of employment per year, limits on the use of artificial intelligence in scriptwriting and a renegotiation of residual payments in streaming.
The union calculates that this package increases annual payments by 429 million dollars (389 million euros). The counterproposal of the studies is worth only 86 million dollars (78 million euros).
The effects of the writers’ strike were already being felt in the industry, forcing the suspension of production of series such as “Stranger Things”, “Cobra Kai” or “The Last of Us”.
An eventual actors’ strike could further complicate the development of new productions in Hollywood.
Source: TSF
