labor
Actors’ AI Protections Are a Step Forward, But There’s Reason to Worry
Of the 16-page summary detailing the tentative deal between SAG-AFTRA and the studios, more than five are spent on provisions over artificial intelligence. It’s the product of months of hard-nosed bargaining by the union on an issue that the studios seemingly didn’t think would emerge as a sticking point walking into negotiations. The document cites […]
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How SAG-AFTRA’s Streaming Bonus Compares to Other Guild Deals
Actors will get a somewhat larger piece of the streaming pie under the tentative agreement they made with studios and streamers — and the deal has a wrinkle that sets it apart from other recent contracts between Hollywood guilds and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. Under the proposed new contract, which SAG-AFTRA’s […]
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Inside the Battle Over Fran Drescher’s “Robin Hood Fund”
In the final days of the SAG-AFTRA contract negotiations, when pressure was closing in on the guild to end what had been a crippling, nearly six month work stoppage, union president Fran Drescher was holding onto an unusual demand, one that most guild members knew nothing about. Drescher wanted a fund over which SAG had […]
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SAG-AFTRA Board Approves New Contract
SAG-AFTRA’s national board has approved the tentative agreement between the actors union and studios and streamers that ended the 118-day actors strike. The board voted to accept the deal with 86 percent approval, national executive director Duncan Crabtree-Ireland said at a press conference Friday. Members of the 160,000-strong union will vote on ratification of the […]
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Can SAG-AFTRA’s Success Inspire Actors Unions Worldwide?
Speaking to CNN on Thursday, shortly after SAG-AFTRA announced it had made its historic deal ending the actors strike, SAG-AFTRA president Fran Drescher told CNN Anchor Kate Bolduan the union’s success had “ignited a workers movement around the world.” Reports of the 118-day walkout were headline news from Spain to Seoul and from London, Ontario […]
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“It’s a Dead End”: TV Writers Assistants Lose Hope for Post-Strike Career Advancement
Although landing any Hollywood gig will always be a challenge, those who work as writers assistants and in other support staff roles within the television-writing ecosystem have found this moment particularly dire. The writers strike is over, and rooms for broadcast hits have reopened, but few jobs in this space have surfaced since then, and […]
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Fran Drescher: “Meryl Streep Said to Me, ‘This Is Great, Now Go Run for President’”
With the SAG-AFTRA strike in the rearview, Fran Drescher will soon have more time on her hands to consider career moves outside of union negotiations. But she knows for sure one job she doesn’t want. “Meryl Streep said to me, ‘This is great, now go run for president,’” the president of Hollywood’s largest union recounts […]
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Duncan Crabtree-Ireland Postgames SAG-AFTRA Deal: We Fought for “Journeyman Performer”
On Thursday morning, SAG-AFTRA finally ended the 118-day actors strike after its negotiating committee approved a tentative agreement with Hollywood studios valued at over $1 billion. Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the union’s national executive director and chief negotiator, knows the process to get to this point was lengthy and brutal — but he says it was necessary […]
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“A Deal of Extraordinary Scope”: SAG-AFTRA Touts Agreement With Studios
SAG-AFTRA is calling its newly minted, strike-ending agreement with studios and streamers one that will benefit “every category” of its membership. In a statement Wednesday night, the union’s TV/theatrical negotiating committee said the tentative agreement is “a deal of extraordinary scope” that includes substantial pay increases, guardrails for the use of artificial intelligence and what […]
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STRIKE OVER: Actors Make a Deal With Studios After 118 Days
After a grueling 118 days on strike, SAG-AFTRA has officially reached a tentative agreement on a new three-year contract with studios, a move that is heralding the end of the 2023 actors strike. The SAG-AFTRA TV/Theatrical Committee approved the agreement in a unanimous vote Wednesday, SAG-AFTRA announced. The strike will end at 12:01 a.m. Thursday. […]
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Fran Drescher’s Role of a Lifetime
In the heat of the actors strike that had ground Hollywood to a halt for months, Fran Drescher told the 34 members of SAG-AFTRA’s negotiating committee a story about an aikido student in Japan who gets into a tiff with a drunk on a train. Throughout the strike, it has been Drescher’s practice to often […]
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SAG-AFTRA Set to Continue Deliberations on Latest Studio Offer on Wednesday
SAG-AFTRA is set to continue deliberations over the latest offer from the studios and streamers as both parties attempt to hammer out a new three-year agreement that will bring an end to the actors’ strike. “Following a meeting Monday night with the AMPTP, the TV/Theatrical Negotiating Committee spent 10 hours deliberating today. We will continue […]
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