A potential actors strike is being put on hold. SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP have yet to reach a tentative deal on a new minimum bargaining agreement ahead of their current contract expiring on June 30, but the two sides have agreed to extend the current contract and continue negotiations past the deadline.
Both organizations representing the actors and studios announced Friday that the contract that was meant to expire at midnight tonight will now expire July 12 at 11:59 PM PT.
So while SAG-AFTRA currently has the power to call for a strike, the guild’s leaders for now will remain at the negotiating table in an attempt to reach a new deal. The guild and AMPTP will continue operating under a media black out until then.
“In order to exhaust every opportunity to achieve the righteous contract we all demand and deserve, after thorough deliberation it was unanimously decided to allow additional time to negotiate by extending the contract,” the members of the SAG-AFTRA negotiating committee said in an open letter. “No one should mistake this extension for weakness. We see you. We hear you. We are you.”
Negotiations between SAG-AFTRA and the AMPTP began on June 7. Before negotiations began, members approved a strike authorization vote with nearly 98 percent of members who participated saying they’d be willing to hit the picket lines, which gave SAG-AFTRA added leverage heading into talks. More recently, over 2000 actors signed a letter aimed at SAG leadership saying they were both willing to strike and willing to “make sacrifices that leadership is not” in order to get a transformative deal.
While many items on the negotiating agenda have not been disclosed, the guild is fighting for improved residuals, higher minimum wages, and regulations around self-taped auditions, as well as guardrails around the use of AI.
The actors last went on strike against the studios back in 1980 for three months and three days in a fight over home video residuals, one that shut down film and TV production and even saw actors boycotting the Emmys.
Striking writers as part of the WGA will have to wait a little longer to see if SAG-AFTRA does join them on the picket lines. The Writers Guild has been on strike for two months since May 1, in which development has halted, production on many new shows and movies has been either temporarily or indefinitely put on hold until a strike is over, and many writers and showrunners have seen their overall deals with studios suspended.
The DGA, or the Directors Guild of America, reached their own tentative deal with the studios back on June 4, and despite some vocal dissent from some hyphenate writers-directors, DGA membership officially ratified the new deal on June 23 with 87 percent of the 6,728 members who voted choosing to ratify it.
