SAG-AFTRA reveals details of tentative deal made with studios
After 118 days on strike, actors were cleared to return to work Nov. 9.
SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher and Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland revealed details of the union's "transformative contract" after it received an 86% approval vote from board members on Friday, successfully sending the three-year agreement to its members for ratification.
It was not immediately clear how many of the 76 board members voted against the contract, as SAG-AFTRA has a "weighted" voting system, according to the union leaders.
"This victory is everyone's victory," Crabtree-Ireland said Friday during the opening of a press conference.
Informational meetings to educate members on the new deal will be scheduled in the coming weeks, and members will begin voting to ratify the agreement on Tuesday.
The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, or SAG-AFTRA, is made up of approximately 160,000 members, all of whom were cleared to return to work on Thursday, effectively ending the historic 118-day strike, the longest in the union's history.
The union leaders said the contract is valued at more than $1 billion in total.
Actors began striking on July 14, joining the picket line alongside writers who went on strike on May 2, effectively leaving most of Hollywood at a standstill all summer.
The writers' union, the Writers Guild of America, successfully ended its 148-day strike on Sept. 27, after reaching a tentative deal with the studios. That agreement was ratified by WGA membership on Oct. 9.
Final negotiations between SAG-AFTRA and The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, or AMPTP, the group negotiating on behalf of the studios, began on Oct. 2 and continued throughout the month and into early November. Disney, one of the studios represented by AMPTP, is the parent company of ABC News.
A few key takeaways from the new details of the actors' union contract include wage increases, protections from generative artificial intelligence, streaming revenue, hair and makeup representation and an intimacy coordinator on all sets.
Under the tentative contract, union leaders said the deal includes a 7% basic minimum increase in the first year, 4% in July 2024, and a 3.5% increase in July 2025.
"This package breaks the so-called 'industry pattern,'" said Crabtree-Ireland, seemingly referencing the 5% first-year increase the Writers Guild negotiated in September.
Background actors' wages increased 11% in the first year and 4% in each of the next two years.
For the first time, the tentative contract includes compensation and consent guardrails protecting performers from generative artificial intelligence technology.
Studios have to provide informed consent including descriptions of the intended use of any digital replica of a performer, including background actors, union brass said on Friday.
"It allows the industry to go forward, it does not block AI, but it makes sure that performers are protected," Crabtree-Ireland stated.
Drescher stressed the importance of regulating AI, "because in a synthetic world, you don't need hair and makeup. You don't need set designers. What we were discussing with AI affects what they're going to discuss about AI."
Companies are also required to inform of any use of AI, the union execs said.
As part of the new proposal, streaming services will pay bonuses to shows that reach a certain level of success, bonuses that the union estimates will be about $40 million per year.
Under the terms of the tentative agreement, 75% of the bonus will go to actors on the highest-streamed shows generating the most revenue, with the remaining 25% going into a fund that will be managed by trustees from both SAG-AFTRA and AMPTP studios and distributed to actors on less successful streaming shows.
Other elements of the proposed deal require hair and makeup professionals with appropriate qualifications to be available for performers with a variety of skin tones, hair textures and styles.
The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers said in a statement late Wednesday that the tentative agreement "represents a new paradigm" and it looked forward to the industry "resuming the work of telling great stories."
Between the two strikes, economists estimate the U.S. economy was impacted by at least $5 billion.
Shortly after news of the deal was announced, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said "This tentative agreement will benefit our economy statewide and kickstart a new wave of exciting projects."
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