• Actors Strike Bring Hollywood to a Standstill in Historic Strike

The Screen Actors Guild of America (SAG-AFTRA) reached an agreement in principle on Wednesday with the major Hollywood studios and streaming platforms for the signing of a new collective agreement that would mean the end of a strike that has lasted 118 days.

"

Our strike has officially ended and all picketing has been suspended. We have reached an agreement that will allow SAG-AFTRA members of all categories to build sustainable careers," the guild said in a statement.

SAG-AFTRA's bargaining committee approved the deal in a unanimous vote Wednesday and the strike ended at 12:01 a.m. local time Thursday.

The agreement still needs to be ratified by the union's board of directors and members, and once that happens, details of the contract that will govern the next three-year working relationship between SAG-AFTRA and the studios represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) will be released.

However, the union announced that it reached an agreement "of extraordinary scope" that includes increases in minimum wages, "unprecedented provisions" that will protect performers from the threat of artificial intelligence (AI), as well as "the establishment of a participation premium for streaming."

The studios, for their part, also welcomed the agreement, calling it a "new paradigm" and indicated that they are ready for the "industry to resume the work of telling great stories," AMPTP said in a statement.

In the last few hours, the AMPTP had insisted to the actors' guild that a decision be made as soon as possible and to be able to try to save the television season or advance in the 2024 film programming. Executives from entertainment companies such as Disney, Amazon, Warner Bros. Discovery and Netflix were involved in the negotiations.

The actors joined the strike held by the Writers Guild of America (WGA) on July 14, in search of better working conditions, increases in the economic remuneration that actors receive when broadcasting their content on streaming services, as well as a regulation on the use of artificial intelligence (AI).

These last points were some of the issues that kept the parties apart.

On Monday, SAG-AFTRA said they still disagreed on several "essential points" of what the studios called their "last, best and final" proposal, and in response the AMPTP agreed to make modifications on issues such as AI.

Joint strike

The strike of both guilds, the first joint in 60 years, affected prominent productions such as the release of films "Dune: Part Two", by Denis Villeneuve, postponed the presentation of awards such as the Emmys, paralyzed the production of films in development such as "Gladiator 2" or "Deadpool 3" and slowed the promotion of various titles.

"We are excited to see SAG-AFTRA members win an agreement that creates new protections for performers and provides greater participation in the immense value they create. When workers come together, they win," WGA wrote via its X account (formerly Twitter).

For his part, actor Jeremy Allen White, star of the series "The Bear", said on the red carpet of "The Iron Claw", that even without knowing the terms of the agreement reached he was "very happy" and convinced that SAG-AFTRA had achieved what its members wanted.

Talks between studios and Hollywood performers intensified more than two weeks ago. Prior to this, they had come closer at the end of September, when the Writers Guild of America (WGA) ended its strike, but then there was another unexpected impasse that further cooled relations.

With the end of the strike, actors would be able to return to work on Thursday, as well as participate in the promotion of films and television series.

The historic strike by actors and screenwriters has resulted in $6.500 billion in losses to the California economy and the layoff of 45,000 workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (U.S. Department of Labor).

  • Actors
  • Hollywood