The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (Sag-Aftra) is a Union of actors of films and TV. This Union decided to go on strike on Friday, 14th July.
This means that these actors will no long act or promote films.
This Union has 1,60,000 members, including the top stars of Hollywood.
11,500 members of the Writers’ Guild of America (WGA) are already on strike since May 2023.
The last time that writers and actors both were on strike at the same time was in 1960. At that time, Ronald Reagen was the President of the Actors’ Guild.
Guild: An organised Union of people who work in the same industry or in the same profession. A Union is a body made by people. It has its own registration. Members have to pay a registration fee, usually once a year. The objective of a Union is to protect the rights of the members. In India, you might have seen taxi unions or labour unions.
What does this mean?
The witty dialogues that we see on television or in films are written by someone. They are the screenplay writers. The plots, the characters, twists, and turns, all need writers. In short, stories need writers. Writers are like the spine of the industry – they are invisible, but they hold it up.
Actors bring the story to life through their performances. They are aided by an army of professionals, but they are the ones we see on screen.
A television program or film needs writers and actors. If both of these strike at the same time, then shooting cannot happen. This means that new programs or films cannot be made until the strike is over.
Not just that, actors cannot even promote their existing films or do allied activities like dubbing, etc., for projects whose filming is complete.
Why are they striking?
In the film industry, few people have permanent employment. Most professionals come together to work on a project. They get paid for working on that project. They don’t get a fixed salary.
The Unions need better pay.
The writers union has asked for higher pay for writers whose shows get better viewership. The studios have rejected this proposal.
On AI, the writers have asked that AI can’t write or rewrite literary material; can’t be used as source material; and human-written material can’t be used to train AI. The studios have also rejected this demand.
The other major issue between the studios and the performers is protection from AI. The studios have agreed that the actor will be paid a small sum to create an AI likeness of the person. But, after that, the likeness can be used by the studio any number of times without paying a royalty. The actors do not agree with this.
The negotiations (discussions) are between the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) on one side and the WGA and Sag-Aftra on the other side.
The studios think that the writers cannot continue for long without payment and will likely have to leave their apartments when they cannot pay rent. The writers feel that the studios will suffer losses because of stoppage of work.