SAG-AFTRA

In New York, four picket-line locations were announced. They were at the headquarters of HBO / Amazon, Warner Bros. Discovery / Netflix, Paramount and NBC Universal. In Los Angeles, eight sites were announced, including Warner Bros., Amazon / Culver Studios, Fox, Paramount, Netflix, Sunset / Gower, Disney and Sony.

Fran Drescher boarded the bus and has landed at her first picket line on the first day of the actors strike. The Nanny star was mobbed outside of Netflix’s Hollywood HQ after giving a rousing speech in defense of actors after talks collapsed with the AMPTP.

Actors’ Equity president Kate Shindle is urging stage actors to “proactively and aggressively avoid breaking” the SAG-AFTRA strike by inadvertently accepting struck work. In a message to members of Equity, which reps stage actors and stage managers, Shindle writes, “Know this: the other side will try to pit us against each other to keep churning out content. Don’t fall for it.”

SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher will be on the picket lines Friday on the first day of the guild’s strike against the film and television industry. She’ll be joined by Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the guild’s national executive director and chief negotiator, and members of the guild’s negotiating committee.

SAG-AFTRA’s national board voted unanimously today to launch the guild’s first strike against the film and television industry since 1980. The strike is set to begin tonight one minute past midnight, with picketing at all the major studios.

The Screen Actors Guild -American Federation of Television and Radio Artists said early Thursday that its decision on whether to join already striking screenwriters will be considered by leadership at a meeting later Thursday. If the actors go on strike, it will be the first time since 1960 that actors and writers picket film and television productions.

Unionized Hollywood actors on the verge of a strike have agreed to allow a last-minute intervention from federal mediators but say they doubt a deal will be reached by a negotiation deadline late Wednesday. Above: Actors and comedians Tina Fey, center, and Fred Armisen, right, join striking members of the Writers Guild of America on the picket line during a rally on May 9.

If actors go on strike when their deal with studios ends on Wednesday, it will be the first time they and the writers have been out at the same time since 1960.

With just days to go, SAG-AFTRA is stepping up its efforts to prepare for going on strike even as contract negotiations with Hollywood’s major studios intensify. On Thursday, SAG-AFTRA distributed a survey to its 160,000 members and alerted them that the union would be calling for volunteers to help make signs, work phone banks, distribute T-shirts and generally support a mobilization of pickets on the streets of Los Angeles, New York and selected other locations. The email message includes a survey of members’ availability to picket outside studio gates, New York offices and other key locations. Thursday’s communication was the second part of the initial survey questions sent to members on Wednesday.

The Writer Guild of America said Wednesday that “we stand in solidarity with SAG-AFTRA as they bargain for a contract that truly works for all their members.” It’s the first comment the WGA has made on the SAG-AFTRA talks since the actors’ union last week extended its contract until July 12 to allow negotiations for a new film and TV contract to continue.

SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers agreed Friday to extend their current film and TV contract until July 12 to allow bargaining on a new deal to continue, both sides said this evening. The current contract had been set to expire tonight at midnight PT, after which it would have likely meant a second major Hollywood guild would be on strike against the studios. “The agreements, which were set Friday at 11:59 p.m. PT, will now expire on July 12, at 11:59 p.m. PT,” SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP said in a joint statement.

SAG-AFTRA negotiators are meeting again Friday with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, as the industry waits in nervous anticipation of a potential “double strike.”

The membership of SAG-AFTRA has voted overwhelmingly to approve a strike authorization, maximizing the guild’s leverage ahead of negotiations that begin on Wednesday. The guild announced Monday night that 97.91% of the voting members supported the authorization. Turnout was 47.69%. The vote comes as the Writers Guild of America strike enters its sixth week.

SAG-AFTRA announced Wednesday that it will hold a strike authorization vote as it seeks to get its “ducks in a row” ahead of June 7 negotiations with the major studios. The vote does not mean that the performers’ union will necessarily join the Writers Guild of America on the picket lines after its contract expires on June 30. In a press release, the union said its negotiating committee decided that a strike authorization would provide “maximum bargaining leverage” for the talks.

SAG-AFTRA and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers have agreed to begin formal contract negotiations on June 7. The guild’s current contract expires June 30. In a joint statement, they said that they are “approaching this process as an opportunity to engage in thoughtful and interactive conversations that result in a mutually-beneficial deal.”

A lawsuit filed against the SAG-AFTRA Health Plan, which claimed that changes to eligibility for benefits “illegally discriminated” against older members, has been settled. The suit was filed in federal court in December 2020 by former SAG President Ed Asner and nine other SAG-AFTRA members. The Health Plan, which had been facing staggering deficits, said that the changes were necessary to keep it from going broke. Asner died in 2021, but a federal judge allowed the case to continue.

SAG-AFTRA has been lobbying for a decade to curtail so-called “exclusivity” agreements, which block TV series regulars from taking other jobs while they are on hiatus. In the agreement approved by the union’s national board on Saturday, producers will be required to give TV actors a three-month window after each season in which they can take any job they want. That means that stars of shows may start appearing more often as guest stars — or even as regulars — on shows on other platforms and networks. The new agreement will apply to work under contracts entered into on or after Jan. 1.

Digital and streaming producers along with assignment editors at CBS-owned WCCO Minneapolis have voted unanimously to join SAG-AFTRA. The 15 employees started the talks with the union in January 2019. On-air WCCO employees and newsroom producers are already members of the union.

SAG-AFTRA announced on Monday evening that it has reached a tentative agreement with the major studios on actor exclusivity periods, an issue that has become a top priority for the union in recent years. The issue affects actors on TV series, who can find themselves barred from working on other projects for many months or even years between TV seasons. The union has said that the issue has grown acute in the streaming era, with seasons getting shorter and with longer delays between seasons.

The on-air staffers long have been represented by the union, but they now are joined by 69 reporters, producers, editors, production assistants and others who not only report and produce the show but also create NewsHour’s expanding digital footprint and one-hour primetime documentaries. NewsHour Productions, which produces the show, has officially recognized the bargaining unit, of which more than 70% of the program’s workers signed on to a petition to unionize.

SAG-AFTRA members have given a big thumbs up to a new three-year network code agreement covering most daytime TV, award shows and mainstay such as Saturday Night Live, Jeopardy, Last Week Tonight with John Oliver and others. The new pact was approved by a 94.7% margin. SAG-AFTRA emphasized the financial gains in the deal as well as contract provisions increasing protections for performers around sexually explicit material.

SAG-AFTRA and Netflix, which have been negotiating under a media blackout for a new contract, have agreed to extend their current contract through July 31 to allow bargaining to continue. Their current contract — known as the 2019 Netflix Agreement — had been set to expire June 30.

SAG-AFTRA’s national board has voted overwhelmingly (84.54% to 15.46%) to approve a tentative new agreement for its Network Television Code, which was recently negotiated with the major television broadcast networks and other producers. It will now be sent to SAG-AFTRA members for ratification.

SAG-AFTRA said Tuesday night that it has reached a tentative agreement for a new set of commercials contracts with the Joint Policy Committee of the advertising industry. The deal, whose terms were not disclosed, now goes to the union’s national board for review and approval.

With their commercials contracts set to expire Thursday night, SAG-AFTRA and the advertising industry’s Joint Policy Committee agreed to extend them on a day-to-day basis to allow negotiations to continue. “During this time,” the union said, “all terms and conditions of the 2019 Commercials Contracts — including all waivers and provisions that might otherwise sunset — are extended. The parties will continue to negotiate, remaining under a media blackout.” The negotiations, which got underway Feb. 16  in New York, cover numerous contracts that generate about $1 billion a year in earnings for the union’s members.

Experienced multimedia journalists and employment experts urged MMJs to compel their bosses to be more proactive about field safety in a second virtual town hall for MMJs sponsored by the Society of Professional Journalists last Saturday. MMJs have more newsroom clout than they think, experts said.

David White (l) is stepping down as SAG-AFTRA’s national executive director and chief contract negotiator. He’ll be staying on at the union until later this spring. In a special meeting held today, the SAG-AFTRA National Board authorized President Gabrielle Carteris and outside counsel to enter into discussions with Duncan Crabtree-Ireland (r), the union’s longtime general counsel and chief operating officer, to succeed White.

Donald Trump, who resigned from SAG-AFTRA on Thursday while facing almost certain expulsion from the union, has now been banned from ever rejoining. The SAG-AFTRA National Board, meeting via Zoom videoconference Saturday, passed a resolution preemptively denying any potential re-admission applications by him.