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The 160,000-member Screen Actors Guild and American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) has officially reached a tentative agreement with the movie studios and streaming services represented by the Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers (AMPTP), effectively ending the months-long Hollywood actors strike.
The union approved the agreement in an unanimous vote on Wednesday, with the strike set to end at 12:01 am Thursday. The agreement will head to the SAG-AFTRA national board for approval on Friday.
A statement from SAG-AFTRA called the tentative agreement “a deal of extraordinary scope” that is valued at more than $1 billion and includes an increase for pension and health caps, “provisions for consent and compensation that will protect members from the threat of AI,” and a first-ever streaming participation bonus.
“We have arrived at a contract that will enable SAG-AFTRA members from every category to build sustainable careers. Many thousands of performers now and into the future will benefit from this work,” the statement added.
In a separate statement, AMPTP said, “Today’s tentative agreement represents a new paradigm. It gives SAG-AFTRA the biggest contract-on-contract gains in the history of the union, including the largest increase in minimum wages in the last forty years; a brand new residual for streaming programs; extensive consent and compensation protections in the use of artificial intelligence; and sizable contract increases on items across the board.”
The strike began on July 14 following unproductive negotiations that led SAG-AFTRA to issue a strike order against the studios and streamers until a fair contract agreement could be reached.
“SAG-AFTRA negotiated in good faith and was eager to reach a deal that sufficiently addressed performer needs, but the AMPTP’s responses to the union’s most important proposals have been insulting and disrespectful of our massive contributions to this industry,” SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher said in a statement at the time of the strike announcement.
The end of the actors strike comes more than three weeks after the Writers Guild of America came to an agreement with the AMPTP and ended its strike after 148 days. This summer marked the first time in more than 60 years that both the writers and actors had gone on strike at the same time, underscoring Hollywood workers’ desire for new agreements reflecting a wildly changing entertainment industry as streaming has upended the old business.
Among the board’s concerns have been issues of historic pay and residual increases, AI proposals to protect actors’ likeness, series option periods, audition protections, pension and health contributions, and more.
In September, SAG-AFTRA members also voted to authorize a strike against video game companies if negotiations didn’t result in a deal, similarly seeking a fair deal related to compensation and AI. SAG announced just over two weeks ago that it would schedule more talks with the video game companies. “The result of this vote shows our membership understands the existential nature of these negotiations, and that the time is now for these companies — which are making billions of dollars and paying their CEOs lavishly — to give our performers an agreement that keeps performing in video games as a viable career,” Drescher shared in a statement at the time.
This article was updated on Nov. 8 at 11:30 p.m. E.T. to include statements from SAG-AFTRA and AMPTP.
