After 118 days, SAG-AFTRA and Hollywood studios have agreed on a tentative deal to end the actors’ strike.
via: KTLA
According to an email sent to members Wednesday evening, the SAG-AFTRA negotiating committee approved a tentative deal with the major film studios.
The total value of the contract totals more than $1 billion, the negotiating committee says, with increased pay for members, increased residual payments related to streaming content and better health and pension benefits.
The studios and the unions also appear to have come to an agreement regarding the use of artificial intelligence in the creation of media, a major sticking point throughout the duration of negotiations.
“We have achieved a deal of extraordinary scope that includes ‘above-pattern’ minimum compensation increases, unprecedented provisions for consent and compensation that will protect members from the threat of AI, and for the first time establishes a streaming participation bonus,” the message to SAG-AFTRA members reads.
As Hollywood rejoices that business is back, many are praising SAG President Fran Drescher.
From the first day of the strike, Drescher took the work stoppage seriously and personally.
“I think that there was a time of reckoning and a recalibration of respect, and honoring and repositioning us as the center of the wheel, and the most significant contributor to the industry at large,” she explained to Sam. “I don’t want my members to feel like peons, but partners. That was a distinction that I was determined to make. It wasn’t something that came easily or quickly. I think that they were not prepared for me at all and they were in for a rude awakening.”
One thing to note, Drescher’s position as president is purely voluntary.
While she had a plush toy in tow during the negotiations, “The Nanny” star proved to be a modern-day labor hero. She said she worked to represent every person within SAG even though there was some division within the union itself.
“We really ignited a worker’s movement around the world. It really was for us about the journeyman, about the lowest paid background person, everybody mattered,” she said. “I brought in experts to represent every community in this contract. They were with us every step of the way. So everybody in the negotiating committee who I hand-picked, some people I really had to fight for, because I entered into a world of great dysfunction and division and partisanship in this union. It took me all of the time that I was president, to get people to come around to realize that I had zero bias towards anyone. I didn’t care what party they aligned themselves with.”
Dubbed the “Fran Plan,” Drescher credited time and patience as “the secret sauce” for being able to pass this historic agreement.
Regardless of what it took, Drescher is “over the moon” that the work stoppage has ended.
“I am so proud that we did what we set out to do. This is a historic contract at a seminal moment,” she exclaimed. “It needed to happen and we did it! We played every card well. Whatever was thrown at us, we turned it around into a positive.”
However, the journey to come to an agreement wasn’t an easy one.
“The weight of it all, the responsibility of it all, was heavy on us all. By the end, it was hard. It was hard on our families. It was hard on our bodies. We were losing sleep. There was a lot of crying and yelling and trying to come to some kind of solution to things.”
Despite all the hardships, she touted the diverse group of union members who came together and made the sacrifices to get this deal done.
“I’ve never been in the vortex of anything quite like this. It’s something that I will never forget. I’ll take it to my grave,” she said gratefully.
I'm truly excited that my actor friends can get back to work, and it goes to show that standing for something does force corporations to eventually change their greedy ways.
You can check out the list of shows set to start filming in the coming months below...
Late November:
NIGHT COURT
STRANGER THINGS
MAX THE PENGUIN
WELCOME TO DERRY
THE PENGUIN
YELLOWSTONE
HACKS
ABBOTT ELEMENTARY
THE ROOKIE
GREY’S ANATOMY
BOB HEARTS ABISHOLA
TRACKER
FBI
FBI: INTERNATIONAL
FBI: MOST WANTED
THE EQUALIZER
BLUE BLOODS
CHICAGO FIRE
CHICAGO PD
CHICAGO MED
LAW & ORDER
LAW & ORDER: SVU
THE IRRATIONAL
QUANTUM LEAP
PRETTY LITTLE LIARS
THE SANDMAN
APPLES NEVER FALL
CHUCKY
Early December start:
THE CLEANING LADY
ALL AMERICAN
9-1-1
WILL TRENT
CSI: VEGAS
THE NEIGHBORHOOD
ANIMAL CONTROL
ALERT
DUSTER
GROWN-ISH
HYSTERIA
————-
Later starts:
January
EMILY IN PARIS
ALIEN
February
ETOILE
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