SAG-AFTRA Makes Deal to End Actors’ Strike

SAG-AFTRA and the Studios Agree Tentative Deal To End the Actors’ Strike After 118 Days

he next step will be the SAG-AFTRA board and members voting to ratify the new deal, but the strike has been called off as of 12:01am Thursday.

SAG-AFTRA members walk the line in New York on 9/21. Photo courtesy of SAG.

Preview:

SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP have reached a tentative labor deal.
The actors strike, which has lasted 118 days, will end at 12:01am Thursday.
The deal comes more than a month after SAG-AFTRA’s sister guild the Writers Guild of America solidified a new contract with studios and ended its own strike.

Looks like Hot Strike Summer is finally, actually coming to an end. Following the Writers Guild making a deal for a new contract to end its own industrial action, performers guild SAG-AFTRA (the combo of Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists) has announced to members that it has secured a new deal.

It’s good news for so many in the entertainment community, since it means TV shows and movies can now start shooting again –– assuming the deal goes through.

What’s the latest on the end of the strike?

SAG-AFTRA members walk the line in Northhampton on 9/21. Photo courtesy of SAG.

The SAG-AFTRA TV/Theatrical Committee approved the agreement in a unanimous vote on Wednesday, SAG-AFTRA announced. The strike will end at 12:01 am Thursday. On Friday, the deal will go to the union’s national board on Friday for approval.

The performers’ union announced the provisional agreement on Wednesday, after about two weeks of renewed negotiations. The development on Wednesday came not long before a deadline of 5pm that the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers had set for the union to give their answer on whether they had a deal.

At the weekend, the AMPTP announced it was making its “last and final offer” to the guild, a statement that was widely mocked by actors on social media, and it was revealed that the two sides were still some distance apart on provisions such as protection against the use of AI to copy performers’ images.

What does this mean for actors?

SAG-AFTRA members Nia Vardalos and Octavia Spencer walk the line at Disney Studios in Burbank, CA on 9/20. Photo courtesy of SAG.

While the board and the membership still have to ratify the new agreement, it effectively means a new three-year contact with a host of changes to how revenue is shared and other protections for performers.

SAG-AFTRA has yet to reveal explicit details of the new contract.

When will shows and movies get back to work?

(L to R) Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool and Hugh Jackman as Wolverine in 'Deadpool 3.' Photo courtesy of Ryan Reynolds Instagram account.

Between the writers’ new contract and this agreement to end the actors’ strike, it means that Hollywood can officially start production on movies and TV shows within a few weeks, or potentially, a few days.

Of course, given the delays from the twin strikes, there will be a scramble for available talent and studio space, particularly on the movie front, meaning that some productions will still be delayed.

We can expect a period of frenzied activity now, but with the incoming holiday period, the various studios and TV networks will once more be quiet as workers take time off.

The companies had already been putting plans in place to shift release dates and TV series launches, and we’d expect most of those changes to stick if there isn’t time to get productions moving again quickly again.

All told, the Hollywood strikes have cost the Southern California economy an estimated $6.5 billion and 45,000 entertainment industry jobs after the WGA hit the picket lines in May, followed by SAG-AFTRA in July.