Earlier this month, the Screen Actors Guild voted to authorize a strike if their negotiating committee doesn’t reach an agreement on a new contract with major Hollywood studios by the end of this coming Friday, June 30th.
Then the other day, SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher released a video message with an update on the negotiations and said: “We are having an [sic] extremely productive negotiations that are laser-focused on all of the crucial issues you told us are most important to you. We’re standing strong and we are going to achieve a seminal deal.”
A lot of actors don’t seem to be convinced as Rolling Stone has obtained a letter signed by more than 300 actors and addressed to the SAG-AFTRA Leadership and Negotiating Committee. The letter urges SAG not to settle for a deal that doesn’t represent all of their demands.
The likes of Meryl Streep, Jennifer Lawrence, Rami Malek, Quinta Brunson, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Ben Stiller, Neil Patrick Harris, Amy Schumer, and Amy Poehler have all reportedly signed the letter which states:
“We hope you’ve heard the message from us: This is an unprecedented inflection point in our industry, and what might be considered a good deal in any other years is simply not enough. We feel that our wages, our craft, our creative freedom, and the power of our union have all been undermined in the last decade. We need to reverse those trajectories.”
There are only days left to make a deal before the contract runs out, and everyone who signed the letter reportedly claims they are “prepared to strike if it comes to that” even though it “brings incredible hardships to so many, and no one wants it.”
Issues in the negotiations circulate around minimum pay, streaming residuals, healthcare, pensions, regulation around self-tapes used in the casting process, and concerns around the use of artificial intelligence.
Back in May, the Writers Guild of America went on strike after they failed to negotiate a deal with Hollywood studios. WGA members have been vocal about their concerns about working conditions across the industry, including many outlined and echoed by SAG members.
Source: Rolling Stone
