Solidarity! Almost 98 Percent Of SAG-AFTRA Members Vote To Approve Strike Authorization

As Paul Gleason once said in "The Breakfast Club," next time SAG-AFTRA has to lay down their strike solidarity, they're cracking skulls. Or something like that. The actor's union has made it official: they're not backing down and are holding the line with their Writers Guild of America counterparts — and best yet, they too may go on strike should a deal not be met by July 1, 2023.

SAG confirmed their strike authorization, which was voted on favorably by a whopping nearly 98% of members over a two-week period, on Monday, June 5. This decision doesn't trigger a strike in and of itself, but it does allow the guild to engage in a strike once contracts are up on June 30, should negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers come to a standstill. Both SAG and the WGA had a nearly identical percentage of affirmative votes for strike authorization, with SAG coming in at exactly 97.91% and the WGA garnering 97.85% approval, according to The Hollywood Reporter. WGA subsequently went on strike on May 2, 2023, following their vote.

SAG president and actor Fran Drescher said in a statement, "Together we lock elbows and in unity we build a new contract that honors our contributions in this remarkable industry, reflects the new digital and streaming business model and brings ALL our concerns for protections and benefits into the now."

AMPTP released a statement of their own as well: "We are approaching these negotiations with the goal of achieving a new agreement that is beneficial to SAG-AFTRA members and the industry overall."

Actors and writers have a lot of similar concerns during this strike period, and both are asking for concessions they truly and rightfully deserve. Getting those concerns fully met is really the only way to end this clash of negotiations on proper terms.

For actors, SAG-AFTRA leaders want to codify protections against generative A.I. in the new contract. There are numerous ways A.I. can be manipulated to disenfranchise actors and those need to be accounted for now. The guild is also looking to improve residuals and minimum rates, especially when it comes to work specifically produced for a streaming outlet. They further plan to put restrictions on the now-popular self-tape audition process, which had a necessary boom during the pandemic but has since hindered and hurt actors, especially those who are up and coming, by taking them out of the room entirely. On top of all that, the guild plans to strengthen the health and pension plans offered by SAG-AFTRA at present.

Writers are similarly looking to weave protections against A.I. into their new agreements and improve residuals and minimums for writers, especially in the context of the streaming world. They're also looking to change and strengthen the rules on mini-rooms so that they don't have the chance to rear their unsavory heads ever again. For those not familiar, mini-rooms are much smaller writers' rooms than average, containing usually around three writers — and rather than have their writing staff along for the ride throughout production to make appropriate changes when necessary, the small staff is expected to break the entire show out of the course of a week or even a weekend for a drastically discounted rate than what they'd receive in a proper room.

These two unions need to be in each other's corner, and thankfully, they appear to be firmly on the same page.