Editor’s note: On the 100th day of SAG-AFTRA’s strike, the 160,000-strong guild and the studios are once again not talking, and no new negotiations are planned. Writers are back at work, but with no actors deal, Hollywood production remains shut down. SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher asserts that it doesn’t have to be like this, that the economic suffering has to be solved. But first, she writes, the studios have to return to the bargaining table and stop playing games with the industry and people’s livelihoods.
***
The members of SAG-AFTRA are in a David-and-Goliath, righteous fight for the future of our profession and our industry.
The 10-year grace period we have given the AMPTP companies to build their streaming platforms at the expense of my members’ fair compensation has come to a screeching halt.
We began negotiations in June with every expectation that we could reach a fair deal. We even granted a 12-day extension of negotiations in an effort to explore every possibility of making a deal, to no avail. As a strike became an absolute necessity, the companies refused to continue negotiations and walked away in mid-July.
When negotiations resumed on October 2, the CEOs afforded us exactly two full-day and three half-day bargaining sessions to resolve a contract that is fraught with inequities in streaming video on demand (SVOD), AI, and other critical concerns like minimum compensation increases that keep up with inflation and dated caps on pension and health contributions, to name just a few key concerns. We presented a comprehensive package and, again, on October 11, they walked away.
As we reach the 100th day of this strike, we are more committed than ever to achieving a seminal contract that is fair and just, because our very livelihoods are at stake.
SAG-AFTRA members have been systematically squeezed out of their ability to make a living due to a streaming model that reduces the number of episodes in a season by two-thirds and the number of seasons by two-thirds, while completely cutting off the syndication tail.
This dramatic compression of work opportunities coupled with inadequate compensation has had a devastating effect on the working actors and journeyman actors who bring movies and television shows to life. It has compromised their ability to pay their rent, put food on the table and clothes on their children’s backs.
The pride of being a working actor who can make a living as a professional has become tarnished, a faded memory from the good old days of linear television.
I am not a Luddite by any means. I have even taught my 90-year-old parents to FaceTime, text and Google search, but the ripple effect from the introduction and dramatic expansion of streaming technology is widespread and damaging.
RELATED: SAG-AFTRA Strike Photos: Actors & Performing Artists On The Picket Line
Over the past decade, streaming has cannibalized much of the entertainment industry’s more traditional forms of exhibition and it is clearly here to stay. It’s a fact: streaming is generating tens of billions of dollars in revenue for these companies, but that economic success is not trickling down to actors.
So, where is the money?
Clearly, it’s not in the old residual payment structure designed for linear TV and it’s not in the current residuals compensation for streaming. It is in the pockets of the CEOs and on the balance sheets of the companies.
Sadly, I’m not at all surprised that our employers, bedazzled by the vast sums of investor money being thrown at their businesses, didn’t consider the performer’s ability to make a living in SVOD while they were negotiating their own rich deals.
That disregard for working people is not unique to the entertainment industry. It’s a sad tale of greed that’s as old as the hills.
So, where do we go from here?
Over the course of our recent round of bargaining, we were baffled by the AMPTPs strategy of non-negotiation, even as orders for scripts and pre-production crew holds have begun to ramp up with the WGA strike now settled.
What could they be thinking?
Then, the ugliness began to rear its head with a blatant propaganda attempt to discredit union leadership and divide our solidarity, while the companies watch their hired-gun PR firm do their dirty work.
Old, tired, typical AMPTP tactics.
What they fail to realize is that my members are living in the dystopia that streaming services have created for those who make their living in the entertainment industry. These working actors are not flying on private jets or sailing on personal yachts. Quite the opposite, in fact, with 86% of our 160,000 members unable to meet the $26,474 threshold to even qualify for health benefits.
This is unsustainable.
We must increase employer contributions into health and pension funds. We must ensure our lowest-paid members receive minimum-wage increases that keep up with inflation. We must have informed consent and compensation for the use of AI. And, we must agree on fair compensation for the shift from an industry dominated by linear TV to one in which streaming reigns.
We must increase employer contributions into health and pension funds. We must ensure our lowest-paid members receive minimum-wage increases that keep up with inflation. We must have informed consent and compensation for the use of AI. And, we must agree on fair compensation for the shift from an industry dominated by linear TV to one in which streaming reigns.
It is the AMPTP and the companies they represent who are prolonging this strike.
It can only end when the parties reach agreement, and to do that, the AMPTP must return to bargaining. With the very existence of the acting profession at stake, to settle for anything less than a fair payment structure and guardrails for AI would be irrational.
For the sake of everyone who makes a living in this business, we hope the strike is resolved soon, but make no mistake: We’re in this fight until the end.
We simply don’t have a choice.