In her two years as SAG-AFTRA president, Fran Drescher has worked assiduously to bridge the factional divides that have long beset the union.
“Member unity will be my greatest legacy,” she promised in her campaign statement this summer, and she sought reelection. (She was reelected with more than 80% of the vote.)
But as the SAG-AFTRA strike nears the 100-day mark, Drescher is facing her most challenging leadership test so far: Can she hold the union together long enough to deliver the “seminal” deal she has promised members?
A group of A-list actors, led by George Clooney, met with her and the union’s top negotiator on Tuesday. Though the A-listers were keen to be supportive, the underlying message was that they are eager to get Hollywood back to work and are not confident that the guild is on a path to doing that.
The group, which also included Ben Affleck, Meryl Streep and Scarlett Johansson, presented a proposal to increase dues on high-earning actors and reconfigure residuals so they benefit the low end of the income scale.
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When the A-listers were gently rebuffed, they could have stayed quiet. Instead, Clooney went public with his idea — an apparent challenge to Drescher and the SAG-AFTRA Negotiating Committee, and a potential sign that the union’s solidarity is beginning to fray.
Drescher recorded an Instagram video on Thursday, in which she explained that Clooney’s dues idea would not work, is barred by federal law, and doesn’t pertain to the issues in the negotiation.
Of his residual proposal, she said: “Unfortunately it doesn’t hold water.”
Drescher then tried to turn the focus back to the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers — which represents the studios — and her own idea for a new form of streaming residual, which she envisions as a game-changer for actors.
“We have cracked the code on something. We have identified what the flaw is in this streaming model,” she said, saying that the CEOs will have to accept an “unprecedented compensation structure.” “It may not be easy. It may not be what they want. But it is an elegant way to solve the problem so we can all go back to work in what would become the new normal.”
SAG-AFTRA followed that up with a written memo to members on Thursday night, again thanking the Clooney group for its “ideas and support,” but explaining why those ideas won’t work.
The memo also indicated that the A-listers are talking with the heads of studios — suggesting they may be trying to work around the negotiating committee.
“The fact that the heads of the networks, streaming companies and studios are open to communicating with them directly is great,” the union said. “But, the executives should not for one second think that they can use the good will of member emissaries to distract us from our mission.”
The union also sent a clear message to actors how they can best be helpful: “So, for now, we encourage all members to champion our full proposal package and get out on the picket line.”
Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, SAG-AFTRA’s chief negotiator, said in an interview on Thursday that the Clooney group’s efforts should not be seen as undermining union solidarity.
“Different people may perceive it differently,” he said. “But from my point of view, the conversations I’ve had with the members across the entire spectrum of our membership have all been, ‘What can we do to help further this?’ And if they have great ideas, I want to hear them for sure.”
The CEOs are also eager to get back to work, but have concluded that so long as the union is demanding half a billion dollars in streaming residuals per year — on top of the streaming residuals actors already get and the percentage increases won by the Directors Guild of America and the Writers Guild of America — the talks aren’t going anywhere.
In private, they have grumbled that Drescher appears to be on a crusade to redistribute wealth, rather than get a workable deal.
Drescher, meanwhile, is working to hold the membership together and convince them to stay the course.
“This too shall pass,” she said Thursday. “But this is the moment where we don’t succumb to pressure. This is the moment where we stand tall and we hold firm.”
