SAG-AFTRA Reaches Tentative Deal With AMPTP, Strike to Officially End Thursday

The longest strike in SAG-AFTRA history is coming to an end. On November 8, after 118 days on the picket lines, the actors' guild reached a tentative agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. According to a statement obtained by the New York Times, SAG-AFTRA's negotiating committee, led by chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland and guild president Fran Drescher, signed off on the deal, which will go to the union's national board for "review and consideration" on Friday, before being voted on by the rest of the guild's membership.

Talks between the two parties broke down in October, when the AMPTP walked away from the negotiating table. The use of artificial intelligence and revenue sharing remained major points of contention even after bargaining resumed. On November 3, the studios made their "last, best and final offer," and SAG-AFTRA leadership worked through the weekend on a counteroffer. The AMPTP's revised language regarding AI raised red flags for the guild: a source for the union told The Hollywood Reporter that the studios "can’t have that loophole to exploit performers. … [The Schedule F AI language in the AMPTP’s proposal] behooves them to have you dead in that they need consent when you’re alive but not when you’re dead.” 

Full details of the agreement are still to come, but the NYT reports significant gains were made, including "increases in compensation for streaming shows and films, better health care funding, concessions from studios on self-taped auditions, and guarantees that studios will not use artificial intelligence to create digital replicas of their likenesses without payment or approval." 

Danette Chavez is the Editor-in-Chief of Primetimer and its biggest fan of puns.