The studios wasted no time Friday responding to the SAG-AFTRA National Board’s vote to approve the new tentative agreement between the guild and the AMPTP.
“We are pleased that the National Board has recommended the agreement for ratification by the membership,” an AMPTP spokesperson said in a statement sent after the guild’s press conference at its Wilshire Boulevard headquarters. “We are also grateful that the entire industry has enthusiastically returned to work.”
This afternoon, SAG-AFTRA’s sprawling national board voted 86% to approve the tentative agreement and prepare to send it to the membership for ratification. Taking place online and in person, the vote will begin Tuesday, November 14 and run to the first week of December, guild chief negotiation Duncan Crabtree-Ireland revealed at the press conference.
After a 118-day strike by the actors guild, SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP reached what the union has called an “unprecedented” deal on November 8. The agreement between the two parties, which was preceded by a late-September deal between the studios and the WGA, contains wage and residuals increases as well as bitterly fought-over AI protections.
The deal also was achieved despite some rather harsh language publicly and behind the scenes between the two sides throughout the past several months.