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#2023 SAG AFTRA Strike
calsyee · 9 months
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Genuinely I think that an entertainment industry strike is one of the best things that can happen in the late capitalist hellscape of our current era.
Because if people already don't have bread, and you take away their circuses, well...
It tends to not go well for empires, when that happens.
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Alissa Wilkinson at Vox:
The Hollywood writers strike marked its one-month anniversary on Friday, with no signs of slowing down. While other guilds in the industry are still on the job — except when they’re blocked by picket lines — the writers may soon get company on those picket lines.
Two other major entertainment guilds, the Directors Guild of America (DGA) and Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA), also entered the summer with looming contract expiration dates. Both groups’ agreements with AMPTP, the trade association that represents the industry’s film and TV production companies, end on June 30. A lot could happen between now and then, but the situation is looking dicey.
All of that means that come July 1, the studios may be facing a double or even triple strike, in effect shutting Hollywood down completely.
The DGA rarely strikes — the last time was in 1987 — and its leadership has not called for a strike authorization vote. But its relations with the AMPTP have been trickier than usual. Negotiations began on May 10, with demands that in part mirror the WGA’s concerns. The main sticking point is wage and residual increases that keep in step with rising costs of living. In particular, lower residuals for shows on streaming services, where the lion’s share of entertainment now lives, have wreaked havoc for many people in the industry, drastically reducing compensation and making it increasingly difficult to just pay the bills.
In the past, the DGA has sometimes managed to make an agreement with AMPTP ahead of the start of bargaining, effectively setting a pattern for the WGA and SAG-AFTRA to follow in their own demands. Last November, the DGA sent a “pre-negotiation” offer to the AMPTP, seeking resolution ahead of bargaining. The AMPTP reportedly rejected the DGA’s proposal, meaning both parties came to the bargaining table without an arrangement.
The situation seemed to intensify due to an unforced error. On May 23, Warner Bros. Discovery launched Max, its newly rebranded streaming platform, which had previously been named HBO Max. Eagle-eyed observers noticed that in listed credits, the platform lumped writers, directors, producers, and so on into one category labeled “creators.” Aside from the queasy implications that the greatest works of cinema and television were just “content,” the choice on the company’s part ran afoul of hard-fought contract regulations regarding credits for artists.
It was a weird choice, and one that set blood boiling in Hollywood. The presidents of the WGA and the DGA issued a rare joint statement, with DGA president Lesli Linka Glatter noting that “The devaluation of the individual contributions of artists is a disturbing trend and the DGA will not stand for it. We intend on taking the strongest possible actions, in solidarity with the WGA, to ensure every artist receives the individual credit they deserve.”
By the end of the day, Warner Bros. Discovery announced that it would modify how credits were listed on the platform in compliance with its preexisting contract agreement with the unions. Yet the strong language indicated that the DGA was ready to play hardball.
Meanwhile, members of SAG-AFTRA have been vocally supportive of the WGA. This is no shock, since on top of the same issue of residuals and wages, the union — which includes, in addition to film and TV actors, people who work in radio, singers, voice actors, influencers, models, and other media professionals — is concerned about the existential threat posed by AI and other technologies. Even before the WGA’s strike began, SAG-AFTRA issued statements regarding how the use of AI could eliminate or greatly reduce work for its members.
Members of SAG-AFTRA have shown up on picket lines to support the writers, and the star power posed by some of its most prominent members helps bring attention to the WGA’s strike. It’s also an effort to remind the studios that when their own negotiations begin, they’re ready for a fight. Underlining that implicit statement, the leadership of SAG-AFTRA unanimously agreed to ask its membership for a strike authorization vote, which concludes this coming Monday, June 5. That’s a move designed to signal solidarity to the AMPTP ahead of negotiations.
[...]
Here’s what’s most significant about all of this: All three unions have never gone on strike at the same time, in the history of Hollywood. The fact that this scenario is possible, even likely, emphasizes how extraordinary this moment is in the entertainment business. 
Hollywood could be on the verge of a triple strike that could effectively shut down everything completely. The WGA strike is ongoing, but the SAG-AFTRA and/or the Directors Guild could also launch their own strikes.
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kropotkindersurprise · 8 months
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July 25, 2023 - Striking stuntman Mike Massa walks in the SAG-AFTRA picket line while on fire. [video]
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thefirsthogokage · 6 months
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The. Deal. Is. So. Good.
Couldn't get the link to the side-by-side of the WGA offer, the AMPTP counter offer from May, and the final deal, because it's a document to download and too many pictures to take for this post that probably wouldn't be legible, but it's in this tweet (click the link below the tweet to go to said tweet):
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Don't forget,the fight isn't over for SAG-AFTRA and next year, contracts are up again for IATSE, including The Animation Guild.
If you're a fan of movies, tv, and animation, keep helping the guilds fight the good fight!
Also, please support the other unions that are out their now fighting their own fights including Amazon workers, Local 11 in LA, and Flight Attendants!
And of course, big thanks to strike hero Drew Carey for paying for probably THOUSANDS of meals for striking writers in LA these past five months.
Congratulations WGA and Pre-WGA for your amazing wins with this contract!
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jellybeanium124 · 9 months
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In the wake of the dual strike I would like to remind everyone that "hollywood elites" is an antisemitic dogwhistle and if you are referring to company executives call them executives
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pedrohub · 6 months
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PEDRO PASCAL and members of SAG-AFTRA continue to picket in support of the SAG-AFTRA strike at Warner Bros. Studios on September 26, 2023 in Burbank, California
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the-commonplace-book · 9 months
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look folks, saying that actors are being greedy and don't need to strike because A-list names get paid buckets of money is like saying that food service workers are paid enough and treated perfectly well and don't deserve more compensation because Gordon Ramsay is millionaire
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As Barbie becomes a billionaire it's heartbreaking to realize that the writers who wrote the film and the actors who participated in it are unable to fully celebrate its success because they are on strike picketing for better working conditions, increased residuals and stronger protections against AI.
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wisefoxluminary · 5 months
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The actors strike is over, GTA 5 was announced, Shrek 5 release date leaked, Legend of Zelda movie was announced, Omegle gets shut down, Ghostbusters Frozen Empire trailer is released, First posters for The Boys S4 drop and Frank Ocean previews new music. Man, November 8th was quite the day wasn't it.
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detectivechen · 11 months
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JURY DUTY (2023) 1x01 "Voir Dire"
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demigoddessqueens · 6 months
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The agreement is tentative!!! Keep going strong writers and actors!!
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quhere · 9 months
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….idk sometimes I wanna travel back in time to 2013 and grab myself and shake her like: in just ten years, after the plague has wreacked havoc, the Bad Guys ™ will try to use developments in artificial intelligence to threaten the world’s creatives into economic submission
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Alissa Wilkinson at Vox:
For the first time in 63 years, Hollywood has a double strike on its hands. The contract between SAG-AFTRA (the Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, two guilds that merged in 2012) and AMPTP (American Motion Picture and Television Producers), which represents Hollywood’s studios and production companies, expired at midnight on Wednesday, July 12. SAG-AFTRA’s national board unanimously voted today to order a strike; membership had previously authorized the strike, with nearly 98 percent of voters in favor. Meanwhile, the WGA (Writers Guild of America) has been on strike since May 2. Like the WGA strike, a SAG-AFTRA strike comes with profound economic consequences. The WGA’s picket lines have already managed to shut down most productions in New York and Los Angeles and across the country as crew members refuse to cross. Since SAG-AFTRA represents 160,000 members — “actors, announcers, broadcast journalists, dancers, DJs, news writers, news editors, program hosts, puppeteers, recording artists, singers, stunt performers, voiceover artists, and other media professionals,” as their website puts it — a strike would have profound effects on many industries. (By contrast, the WGA, which has just entered day 73 of its strike, has around 20,000 members.) To be clear, a strike doesn’t mean people can’t act at all; it means they cannot perform work for struck companies (which is to say, members of the AMPTP, like Disney and Netflix). Unless specific concessions are made, they can’t promote work for struck companies either. (Yes, their publicists are reportedly panicking.)
Major studios, for instance, have been dropping out of Comic-Con rather than have a poor showing with the few actors who might cross the picket line. You likely wouldn’t see actors promoting new movies (like Barbie or Oppenheimer) or walking the red carpet at film festivals; WGA members have already stayed away. And of course, they won’t be on set.
What does SAG-AFTRA want?
In many ways, what SAG-AFTRA wants is similar to what the WGA wants, all of which is driven by technology.
In a streaming-forward world, the typical TV season length has shrunk drastically, from the traditional broadcast model (up to 26 episodes per season) down to maybe eight or 10 episodes. That means actors are working far less on each job and tend to have larger gaps between jobs, which means it’s harder to make a steady living. But compensation hasn’t kept pace with the shift, and SAG-AFTRA is asking for a raise. (The specific terms are still scarce as negotiations continue.) Additionally, residuals — which are sort of like royalties, paid to actors when their work continues to earn money for the studio in the form of reruns or streaming content libraries — are at a level that the guild sees as unsustainable for its members.
Like the WGA, SAG-AFTRA is also enormously concerned about the potential for rapidly developing AI to replace its members. And it should be: AI can be trained on actors’ likenesses or voices, which can then be used to generate new performances both on-screen and in voice-over or other capacities.
In a bulletin to members addressing their concerns, SAG-AFTRA leadership cited creating guidelines around acceptable uses of AI, bargain protections against misuse, and consent and fair compensation when members’ work (such as their likeness or voice) is used to train AI systems and create new performances. “In their public statements and policy work, the companies have not shown a desire to take our members’ basic rights to our own voices and likenesses seriously,” SAG-AFTRA leadership noted.
[...]
Why isn’t AMPTP budging?
When asked, the studios tend to cite tough economics as the reason they can’t raise minimums or residuals. (They don’t talk a lot about AI, which in itself is probably worth noting.) Like the WGA, SAG-AFTRA takes issue with that math. In their bulletin, they note that “in sharp contrast to the diminishing compensation paid to our members, the studios are posting immense profits with a bullish outlook as demonstrated by lavish corporate executive compensation.” The reality is that studios and production companies are increasingly embedded in larger corporations and tech companies that are beholden to shareholders, and the way they think and talk about profit and revenue is different from the way the people who take home a paycheck do. It’s hard to argue with some staggering statistics about CEO pay at entertainment companies; average pay for a top Hollywood executive was $28 million in 2021, a hike of 53 percent from 2018. Disney CEO Bob Iger, who called the actors’ demands “not realistic” on TV on the morning the strike was called, recently signed a contract to run the company through 2026 and makes about $27 million a year.
On top of that, the AMPTP didn’t exactly cover themselves in glory in a recent Deadline article, published the day before SAG-AFTRA’s contract was set to expire, in which an anonymous studio executive told the reporter that with the writers strike, “the endgame is to allow things to drag on until union members start losing their apartments and losing their houses.” An “insider” quoted in the article called it “a cruel but necessary evil,” and the article suggested the AMPTP had no intention of returning to the bargaining table with the striking writers until October. WGA members reacted with scorn on Twitter, noting that AMPTP members will be hurt by these same tactics and that the economics of being a writer in Hollywood have prepared them well for this moment. “‘Let writers go broke’ would be a more effective tactic for an endgame if it hadn’t been their pre-game, too,” noted Fleishman Is in Trouble writer and showrunner Taffy Brodesser-Akner. The AMPTP soon backtracked the statement.
Yet, given its timing, some speculated the article had the hallmarks of being planted by the studio as a negotiation (or maybe non-negotiation) tactic aimed at scaring SAG-AFTRA out of going on strike. Furthermore, on Tuesday, reports surfaced that AMPTP had requested the aid of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) in mediating the contract with SAG-AFTRA. The actors’ union agreed to work with the FMCS, but issued a blistering statement aimed at the AMPTP. “We condemn the tactic outlined in today’s inaccurate Variety piece naming the CEOs of several entertainment conglomerates as the force behind the request for mediation, information that was leaked to the press by the CEOs and their ‘anonymous sources’ before our negotiators were even told of the request for mediation,” the statement reads. “The AMPTP has abused our trust and damaged the respect we have for them in this process,” it continues. “We will not be manipulated by this cynical ploy to engineer an extension when the companies have had more than enough time to make a fair deal.”
All of this suggests that AMPTP’s members believe that the unions will crack if divided and conquered. Others dispute that, framing this crisis as existential and noting the extraordinary solidarity from other unions in Hollywood, remarkable in contrast to the last strike in 2007. On Wednesday, the WGA, Teamsters, IATSE (which covers on-set tradespeople, such as electricians and greens people), and the Directors Guild (which ratified its own contract in June) issued a statement expressing solidarity with SAG-AFTRA. Whether the AMPTP’s tactics will ultimately prove to be effective remains to be seen.
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Why is this strike so historically meaningful?
This is the first double strike since 1960, which alone is significant, but one of the stranger factoids is who led that strike. The main issue on the table was once again residuals, once again driven by a relatively new technology — this time, television. Both guilds were pushing for a similar demand: When they wrote or acted in a movie, and that movie was sold to a TV network and broadcast, the network would earn money from ads. The guilds wanted their members to be paid residuals, just as they would for a TV show. The studios, of course, didn’t.
SAG-AFTRA joins the WGA heading to the picket lines to conduct a strike, meaning that there is a double strike in Hollywood.
Concerns about AI and residuals are the driving force for the strike.
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pjotvshownews · 9 months
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Rick Riordan on Threads
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thefirsthogokage · 9 months
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NBC Universal is pulling shady shit. Please consider signing the petition and helping them picket at Universal:
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[Image ID: A tweet threat from Katherine DiSavino from July 15th that reads in it's entirety:
I’m a WGA strike captain & lot coordinator at NBC Universal. On the 2nd week of our strike, Universal began construction on the sidewalks we were picketing on. On day 74 of our strike, they have fenced in and demolished every sidewalk surrounding Gates 1, 2, 4, and 5. (1/3)
(this tweet includes an image that reads: NBC Universal risks Picket and Public Safety. Sign the petition to demand the construction of a pedestrian lane!)
It has made picketing at Universal a challenge, and our incredible Captains and picketers have risen to that challenge every day. But enough is enough. Universal MUST install what the City, County and LAPD Labor Relations have deemed necessary: a protected pedestrian lane. (2/3)
Please sign the petition. Please share it. And please come picket with us at Universal so we can continue to make it clear that the WGA will hold this picket line no matter what. (3/3)
Click this sentence to go to the Google docs petition.
You don’t have to be WGA to sign. If you like sidewalks and walking safely, consider signing!
[/End ID]
Tagging people I think might be willing to boost this under the cut:
Sorry if any of you have posted something about this already
@neil-gaiman @dduane @jeanjauthor @wilwheaton @flanaganfilm @fans4wga @friendshiptothemax @seananmcguire @writergeekrhw @reallyndacarter @teamlynda
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yukipri · 6 months
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I met Obi-Wan
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