HAPPY ENDING

SAG-AFTRA Finally Strikes a Deal With Hollywood Studios

Fran Drescher, the union’s president, celebrated the tentative three-year agreement as “The Billion+ $ Deal! 3X the last contract!”

The 2023 Hollywood actors’ strike will come to an end at 12:01 a.m. on Thursday after SAG-AFTRA reached a tentative agreement with the studios on a new three-year contract.

A statement from the guild noted that the contract, “valued at over one billion dollars,” had been approved unanimously by the negotiating committee.

Though it did not delve into the specifics, the union posted a thread on X outlining some of its biggest wins, including “‘above-pattern’ minimum compensation increases, unprecedented provisions for consent and compensation that will protect members from the threat of AI, and for the first time establishes a streaming participation bonus.”

The tentative contract is also expected to better fund the union’s health and pension plans, “outsize” compensation increases for background actors, and stronger protections for diverse communities, according to the thread.

The deal comes after 118 days on the picket line, two weeks of intense negotiations, and notably, according to The Hollywood Reporter, just ahead of a 5 p.m. deadline set by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers for the union.

The agreement does not necessarily mean the historic labor action is over for good. First it heads to the guild’s national board, which is expected to meet on Friday to review and consider its terms.

“Further details will be released following that meeting,” SAG-AFTRA said in a statement. After that, the deal will be sent to the union’s more than 150,000 members for ratification, the final step in ending the strike.

Kevin E. West, a member of the committee, said there were “tears of exhilaration and joy” after the contract was approved. Speaking outside union headquarters, according to Variety, he added that the final deal was “not perfect—nothing is,” but that it was still an “extraordinary” achievement.

Fran Drescher, SAG-AFTRA’s national president, also celebrated the deal on Instagram. “We did it!!!! The Billion+ $ Deal! 3X the last contract!” she wrote. “New ground was broke everywhere! Ty sag aftra members for hanging in and holding out for this historic deal!”

The actors first walked out on July 14, two months after the Writers Guild of America went on strike. (The last time both unions were on strike simultaneously was 1960.) After the writers struck a deal with the studios in late September, all eyes turned to the actors.

Negotiations, which had fallen apart earlier in the year, began afresh on Oct. 2, with the heads of the four big studios—Netflix’s Ted Sarandos, Warner Bros. Discovery’s David Zaslav, Disney’s Bob Iger, and NBCUniversal’s Donna Langley—in attendance. But the studios bristled at the demand for a cut of streaming service revenue, with Sarandos calling it “a bridge too far,” and walked on Oct. 11.

On Oct. 17, the actors’ strike became its longest in Hollywood history. The previous recordholder, which occurred in 1980, clocked in at 95 days.

The sides reconvened on Oct. 24. On Friday, the studios presented the union with what they called their “last, best and final” offer. Two days later, the union informed members that it had delivered its response, noting that the offer fell short on “several essential items,” including artificial intelligence guidelines.

Variety reported that the AMPTP finally modified its language around A.I. on Monday night, triggering a 10-hour SAG-AFTRA committee meeting on Tuesday that continued into Wednesday morning.

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AJ McDougallBreaking News Reporter

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