TV, film and radio actors and other performers voted to authorize a strike Monday night, bringing their union one step closer to joining a month-long walkout by Hollywood writers, which would dramatically escalate the U.S. entertainment industry’s labor crisis.
The Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) voted overwhelmingly — 97.91 percent — for strike authorization ahead of the negotiations with production companies and studios starting Wednesday, the group said in a statement.
But SAG-AFTRA won’t resort to a strike just yet. The union’s leaders hope that simply having the authority to call one will put pressure on production companies and studios, represented by the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), as the two sides tried to negotiate a renewal of their contract before it expired June 30. Right before that deadline, the actors’ union and Hollywood studios said they would extend contract talks through July 12, Reuters reported.
“As we enter what may be one of the most consequential negotiations in the union’s history, inflation, dwindling residuals due to streaming, and generative [artificial intelligence] all threaten actors’ ability to earn a livelihood if our contracts are not adapted to reflect the new realities,” SAG-AFTRA’s national executive director and chief negotiator, Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, said in a statement after the vote.
Now Hollywood executives face the prospect that A-list celebrities — as well as thousands of other entertainers and broadcasters — could walk off their sets in a matter of weeks if their demands aren’t met.
Here’s what you need to know about the crisis and how it’s shaking up Hollywood.