Today, SAG-AFTRA negotiating committee is back at the table with A-M-P-T-P. At the picket lines, there are eligible SAG-AFTRA members, models and actors who believe that this time, there’s a chance for a much-needed agreement.
SAG-AFTRA has been striking over 100 days. They are fighting for a significant wage increase, improved residual payments for streaming, and protections against the use of artificial intelligence. Continued after a failed negotiation on Wednesday, October 11th due to a disliked offer that was proposed before the strike began, the continued strikes hope to end after today’s meeting with AMPTP.
James Hudson, a model and actor, shares his thoughts on who should be standing with him during the strike.
James Hudson: All the famous people don’t really need to be coming out here. A lot of A-listers do. But like, Brad Pitt can’t come out... I mean, that’s just too much. And they probably have prior obligations. They’re probably doing like foundation stuff and whatever. But for small time actors, yes, I’d say you better get your ass down here because when we’re back from strike, I’m standing next to you on set and I ask you if you went down to strike, I’m going to be pissed if you say no, because this was hard.
Hudson believes that the voluntary labor of standing in the sun and marching should be taken into account later on.
Hudson: So be kind of nice of SAG took that in a consideration with our members and said, you know, when he strikes over me, go back to work. And they’re like, you know, someone’s like, I’m not getting booked that much. Well, they’re like, well, you went to Strike Zero times in 105 days, right? So, we’re considering, you know, I don’t know, not kicking you out of the union, but, you know, we’re booking more people that went down to strike because they fought for it, you know.
However, Sarah Carey, SAG eligible member thinks otherwise.
Sarah Casey: I don’t think that’s fair to say. I think everyone is on their own level. Everyone has their own personal issues, like social anxiety is real. And even for me as an introverted human being, coming out here was really difficult. But once I finally did it and saw what it was like, it made it easier. And not everyone has that person.
When asked about what they’d say if given the opportunity to speak during the meeting set today, striker Alexander Gutierrez said.
Alexander Gutierrez: I think I think solidarity is important. I mean, just coming out here, I mean, we have people from we have other unions, from other workforces, not even just in the entertainment industry, but in another in other categories as well.
Strikers hope that the meeting today provides an end to the strike, that SAG-AFTRA demands are met and members soon back at work.
For Annenberg Media, I’m Spartacus Smith