#what sag-aftra wants

[darkangel1791]

Hollywood actors are going on strike after contract negotiations fail

The entertainment industry is already at a standstill because of a writers strike.

July 13, 2023, 4:12 AM EDT / Updated July 13, 2023, 3:16 PM EDT

By Daniel Arkin

NBC.com

LOS ANGELES — Thousands of Hollywood actors are heading to the picket lines after their labor union and a trade group representing the industry's leading studios failed to reach a deal on a new contract, grinding film and television production to a halt.

The national board of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, or SAG-AFTRA, voted unanimously Thursday morning to go on strike, the guild announced at an afternoon news conference.

The picket lines will start to form on Friday.

"What happens here is important because what's happening to us is happening across all fields of labor, by means of when employers make Wall Street and greed their priority and they forget about the essential contributors that make the machine run," SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher said.

The guild’s members, rattled by the economics of the streaming era and the rise of unregulated digital technologies, seek higher base compensation and safeguards around the use of artificial intelligence, among other demands. Hollywood's writers are already striking over similar issues.

In a news release early Thursday, SAG-AFTRA said that, after more than four weeks of bargaining, the trade association that represents major companies such as Disney, Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery “remains unwilling to offer a fair deal on the key issues that are essential" to its members.

Drescher, who starred on the sitcom “The Nanny,” said in that statement her guild “negotiated in good faith,” but “the AMPTP’s responses to the union’s most important proposals have been insulting and disrespectful of our massive contributions to this industry.”

The Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers, the group representing the studios, said the strike was "certainly not the outcome we hoped for as studios cannot operate without the performers that bring our TV shows and films to life."

"The AMPTP presented a deal that offered historic pay and residual increases, substantially higher caps on pension and health contributions, audition protections, shortened series option periods, and a groundbreaking AI proposal that protects actors’ digital likenesses for SAG-AFTRA members," the group said.

"The Union has regrettably chosen a path that will lead to financial hardship for countless thousands of people who depend on the industry," the group added.

The strike will be limited to film and television productions. The walkout will not involve SAG-AFTRA members who work in the news business, such as certain broadcast hosts and announcers.

The announcement comes more than two months after the Writers Guild of America, a union that represents film and television scribes, started striking amid its own dispute with the AMPTP. (The group represents Comcast, the corporation that owns NBCUniversal; some employees of the NBCUniversal News Group are represented by the WGA.)

The writers walkout halted most television production, delayed the filming of some high-profile movies and sent late-night talk shows into reruns. The actors strike will likely force other sets to go dark.

SAG-AFTRA members authorized a strike June 5 by an overwhelming margin: 97.91% of the almost 65,000 members who cast votes. The guild began negotiating with the top studios and streaming services two days later.

The union’s existing contract with the major studios originally expired at 11:59 p.m. PT June 30, but both sides agreed to continue negotiations and extended the talks until midnight on July 12.

SAG-AFTRA has argued that performers have been undermined by the new economics of streaming entertainment and threatened by emerging technologies. 

The guild is seeking increased base compensation for performers, which union leaders say has declined as streaming-first studios pivot away from paying out residuals to talent and inflation takes its toll on the economy in general.

The union’s actors are also alarmed by the threat posed by the unrelated use of AI (such as tools that can make digital replacements for recognizable stars) and the cost of “self-taped auditions” — videos that used to be paid for by casting departments and production offices.

In recent weeks, some in the entertainment business worried that all three major Hollywood guilds — SAG-AFTRA, WGA and the Directors Guild of America, or DGA — would walk off the job simultaneously.

But that will not be the case since the Directors Guild announced in early June it had reached a “truly historic” tentative agreement with the studios.

Daniel Arkin is a national reporter at NBC News.

[bixels]

In the middle of a strike.

[thetimelordbatgirl]

Bob Iger saying all this while also being on basically billionaires vacation really should say something, holy shit.

[schrodingers-hoarding-problem]

kill ai

kill it right now

kill it dead

death murder and violence

this is what i wish upon it

[cyanide-sippy-cup]

All I have to say about SAG-AFTRA

Fuck yes

[hawkinslibrary]

[rafesthroatbaby]

MY CHEST HURTS

[gemharvest]

I think its funny that the music for that recent Disney movie was so bad that people are trying to say the lyrics were AI generated. Yesss kick the mouse while he's down.

[wowbright]

Ugh.

[unrealcosima]

Some of the responses to the writer and actor strike has shown me that there are a lot of dumb people and very little worker solidarity

[apersonwholikeslotus]

That moment when someone comes up to you in public and gives you a flyer for something you do really care about but you panic when approached in public so the only way u can show you care is stand there going “mhm :)” while the lady tells u about a cause you’re already very informed on.

[everysongineverykey]

saw the trailer for the upcoming kenneth branagh poirot movie. man this is why we can't have nice things

[msclaritea]

[saltypiss]

Obviously not a "gamers are so oppressed" kind've person, moreso the opposite where they ask to be oppressed with their wallets and lies like that noodle fella.

But nothing speaks volumes to exactly WHY gamers are so hyper-defensive of this media format than Sag-Aftra absolutely throwing JUST GAMING VOICE ACTORS under the bus.

And here we are! Where you can see, Live Time, Side by Side, exactly How Fucking Bad this industry is, and how Fuckin Mad it makes people when someone defends the state of things. Hollywood fuckers are FINE! Protected! Of course! Gaming voice actors? Pffft, who cares! It's GAMERNINGS! WHO CAREEES! THERE AIN'T NO STEVEN SHPEELPORG IN GAMING!

Obviously, again, not a "gamers are oppressed" loser, just someone who's got eyes and can read the room. When I say Gamers, I don't mean Gaming, and vice versa.

Gaming is not viewed as anything but a disposable medium, and everyone will feel the wrath of such mentalities when discs start to rot and your only way to play games is legally described as piracy by lobbyists who paid 10k to a politician to keep these laws as broken and out of date as humanly possible.

Gaming is so disrespected that for DECADES you couldn't have a fucking GAME during a LOADING SCREEN because a fucking gaming company OWNED THE RIGHTS TO SUCH A CONCEPT. Could you IMAGINE the fucking SHIT SHOW that would be in ANY other fuckin' medium. You can't use that form of story telling in your book, it's owned by Tolkien or some shit. You can't have wide camera angle lenses! That's owned by Tencent! Or some shit.

LEGALLY SPEAKING, GAMING IS AN OPPRESSED MINORITY. No regulations, no oversight, absolutely batshit horrendous downright illegal workplace conditions, a blacklist worse than any fucking industry, god christ, the entire gaming industry is so fucking unregulated and unprotected. Don't join a gaming company unless you want retail work conditions x10.

I'M JUST SAYING IRONICALLY, BUT WITH THE CONVICTION OF "DO YOU SEE WHY 'GAMERS' ARE ALWAYS SO DEFENSIVE????" THAT THIS SHIT IS SO COMMON PLACE.

THE PREVIOUS PRESIDENT

SAID VIDEO GAMES ARE DANGEROUS

DO YOU SEE HOW FUCKING TARGETED

THIS ONE MEDIUM IS.

I guess he says books are dangerous too but let's be honest BOOKS WILL BE FINE! YOU CAN GO ONLINE! IT'S SAVED ON HUNDREDS OF WEBSITES! YOU CAN INDIVIDUALLY, TAKE A PICTURE, OF EVERY PAGE, AND STILL HAVE IT. YOU CAN COMPRESS THE ENTIRE SHREK MOVIE AND PUT IT ON DISCORD.

YOU LOSE ONE FUCKING BYTE OF A GAME AND IT STOPS WORKING ENTIRELY.

An entire MEDIUM of art is left up in the air like it's a fucking cheap disposable tool, a product on a fucking conveyor belt fed into packaging and a box. No art. No passion. No culture. No enrichment. Just a soulless, fucking husk.

HELP

HELP ME UNDERSTAND WHY WE DON'T RESPECT ART UNLESS IT'S TIED TO DECADES OF BLACK AND WHITE IMAGERY. PLEASE. TELL ME.

Because I for one am simply NOT EVEN SLIGHTLY surprised that the union was gonna shaft SOMEONE, specifically the game voice actors side. I just didn't think they'd go out of their way to spit on them and basically TOTALLY take the OPPOSITE FUCKING END OF THE APPROACH they did for HOLLYWOOD for GAMING.

The Polar. Fucking Opposite Mentality. Opposite. As in, Yes, AI stealing voice actor jobs is FINE, so long as it's GAMING.

This shit is why you see "gamers are so oppressed" unironically, because these same fucking idiots enabled the industry to BULLDOZE towards AI, NFTs, microtransactions and live-service. They're too fucking stupid to see they ensured this would be the state of things. And here we are, where once again, Consumers don't Give a Fucking Shit, because Gaming Doesn't Matter. Not even to it's loudest fans, it's nothing.

All around this industry is FUCKED. It's FUCKED. The consumer approves EVERYTHING these companies pull. No Shit Sag-Aftra just looked at this fucking community and industry and laughed, chuckled, and then gave a blank paper to companies to do whatever the fuck they want to people. Of course.

because why, oh god why, would you defend an industry this fucking morally and intellectually bankrupt. Fucking embarrassing. Thanks world, I fucking hate unions, Take a Company and add a second layer to it just for them to argue against your interests.

Congrats, that'll fix shit. Fuck Unions. Fuck Sag-Aftra. Fuck the Consumer. Fuck this shitty planet of specimen to be examined.

[neil-gaiman]

This is really good news! I look forward to seeing the details and voting on it soon.

(And to the SAG-AFTRA strike being similarly and rapidly resolved.)

Edited to make it a gift link, so it should now open for everyone.

[caruliaa]

omitb spoilerss but before the season 3 finale i want to say and get out there tht i think tobert is involved in the murder some way, i do think tht donna(or maybe cliff) was involved but i also think tobert is part of it either the murder itself or covering it up