The measure would be communicated at a press conference to be given at 12:00 PT, after several weeks of negotiations without finding an answer.
There was no case: the negotiations between the SAG-AFTRA union, which has no less than 160,000 direct members, with the main studios and streaming services based in the United States did not come to fruition and the strike of actors is imminent.
Although the news is shocking, the union had indeed been warned that it would make this decision if its demands were not answered. In fact, the first deadline that they had set was July 1, but an extension agreed by the parties set July 12 as the new date for the problems to be solved without going to strike.
Fran Drescher (Fran Fine in The Nanny), the union's president, called the proposed offers "insulting and disrespectful." The negotiating commission of the group unanimously voted for a strike, which is, added to the 98% support for the measure by the members, so that only the vote of the board of directors remains, which will take place in the next few hours, which would confirm this strike. The result of the vote will be announced at 12:00 pm / PT, taking into account the US Eastern time zone.
The measure of force was supported by figures such as Jennifer Lawrence, Meryl Streep, Ben Stiller and many other Hollywood stars, who had signed the first letter announcing that they were willing to stop not finding solutions.
On behalf of the body that represents film studios and streaming services, they clarified that they feel "deeply disappointed" by the decision. According to his words, they would have offered "historic" salary increases, although detailed details of the negotiation have not been known.
"The SAG-AFTRA television/film/broadcast contracts have expired without a successor agreement," union members responded in a statement. "After more than four weeks of negotiation, the AMPTP, the entity that represents major studios and broadcasters including Amazon, Apple, Disney, NBC Universal, Netflix, Paramount, Sony, and Warner, Bros. Discovery remains unwilling to offer a fair deal on key issues that are essential to SAG-AFTRA members."
In principle, this decision would affect most of the films that are being shot today. Unlike the scriptwriters' strike, which has been on since the beginning of May and does not seem close to being resolved, the actors' strike would completely stop productions in progress, except those that are in the post-production stage. The joint strike of screenwriters and actors has not occurred since 1960, when the former president of the United States, Ronald Reagan, then an actor, was the president of the Screen Actors Guild.
