NEWS: Actors Guild Votes To Strike, Brings Hollywood to a Halt

If you’re in the entertainment industry or you keep up with its news, then you likely know all about the labor difficulties that have been happening this year.

There have been problems in the film industry this year.

The Writers Guild of America issued a screenwriters’ strike back in early May, and that strike is still ongoing. Since then, there have also been difficult contract negotiations with SAG-AFTRA, which is the union that represents actors. And after several weeks with no settled contract, that union is also launching a strike.

The deadline for the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) to negotiate a new union contract with SAG-AFTRA was set for 11:59PM on July 12th. When that deadline passed and no contract agreement had been reached, the SAG-AFTRA board met on July 13th to discuss options. The board then voted unanimously to issue a strike order.

In a press conference on July 13th, SAG-AFTRA noted several industry issues that led to the strike, including streaming model undercuts and the threat that actors face due to the use of AI in the industry. With those challenges in mind, SAG-AFTRA proposed a new contract to AMPTP, but that contract was rejected. Now, actors will be on strike until the contract is agreed to.

According to The Washington Post, this will be the first time that actors and writers have been on strike together since 1960. At that time, Ronald Reagan was the president of SAG and led them in a joint strike with WGA. “That dual strike led to the creation of a residual-payment system — a bit like royalties — that is now a staple of Hollywood.”

©SAG-AFTRA

With both strikes happening simultaneously, there is likely to be a large impact on the entertainment industry. We’ll make sure to keep you updated if we get any news about ongoing projects, films, or shows.