On Wednesday, the national board of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists voted unanimously to ask members for an authorization to go on strike if the guild is unable to reach a new deal with studios.
“Earning a living as a professional performer has become increasingly difficult, with both inflation and the streaming ecosystem undercutting compensation — all the while, corporate profits and executive pay at studios continue to rise. Add to this the unregulated use of artificial intelligence and the burdens of the industrywide shift to self-tape, the outlook for working actors becomes unsustainable without transformative change,” the Board said in a statement announcing the vote.
While unanimity among SAG-AFTRA’s board is no guarantee that rank and file membership will agree to a strike, the decision to ask for authorization comes amid a high degree of support in the guild for the ongoing writers’ strike.
Members of the Writers Guild of America went on strike at midnight on May 2, when talks between the groups broke down and their previous contract expired. The next day, WGA members and leaders held a rally at the Shrine in Los Angeles where they were joined by members of 6 other Hollywood unions, including SAG-AFTRA and the Directors Guild of America.
Read the SAG-AFTRA board’s statement about the vote here.
More to come…
